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LIBRARY 

OF   THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

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Received        /^TZl/Tsv*  ,  I$9r/' 


Accession  No. u>T~< •       Class  No. 


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THIRD    QUARTER.  1894. 

Progressive  Thought  Publications. 

Vol.  1.  No 


THE 

PROGRESSIVE  flflND  BOOK 

OK 

THE  LABOR  EXCHANGE. 


TH.K  DA\VX  OF  EQUITY. 


K.  /.  ERNST, 

GENERAL  ORGANIZER. 


I'l    HLISHED      HY 

THE    PROGRESSIVE    THOUGHT    CO. 
Olathe,   Kansas. 


Single  Number,  25c.      Yearly  Subscription,  $1.00. 


Entered  at  the  Olathe,   Kansas,   Post  Office  as 
Second-Class  Matter. 


THE 


PROGRESSIVE  HflND  BOOK 


THE  LABOR   EXCHANGE, 


THE    DAWN    OF    EQUITY. 


Onward  and   Upward  to  a  Higher  Civilization. 


BY 

E.  Z.  ERNST, 
%\ 

GENERAL    ORGANIZER. 


PUBLISHED  BY 

PROGRESSIVE    THOUGHT    COMPANY, 

Olathe,    Kansas. 

1894. 


ALL     RIGHTS     RESERVED 

BY   E.    Z.    ERNST, 

Except  when  publishers  will  make  extracts 
»ive   full  credit  to  the  author  with 
post  office  address  complete. 


E.  Z.  ERNST. 


INTRODUCTION. 

In  the  propagation  of  our  work,  as  General 
Organizer  of  the  Labor  Exchange  movement,  we 
find  it  necessary  to  have  some  printed  matter  to 
aid  in  the  preparation  of  the  average  mind,  so 
that  the  masses  may  be  more  actively  employed 
in  the  study  of  the  great  principles  brought  into 
operation  by  the  introduction  of  this  ONLY  TRUE 
SYSTEM  of  co-operation.  Therefore  we  have  con- 
cluded to  so  arrange  the  following  matter  in  short, 
condensed  lectures,  leading  and  preparing  the 
mind  for  a  change,  and  then  follow  with  illustra- 
tions, facts  and  demonstrations,  by  which  we 
hope  to  show  how  to  organize  and  operate  the 
system  successfully  in  any  place  where  better  con- 
ditions are  desired. 

To  give  all  the  varied  details  of  how  organ- 
izations might  be  affected  and  also  to  answer  all 
the  essential  or  non-essential  questions,  which  the 
learner  may  ask,  would  make  a  book  too  cumber- 
some and  expensive  for  the  purpose. 

We  hope  the  sincere  readers  will  employ  a 
reasonable  share  of  common  sense,  and  sufficiently 
comprehend  our  plans,  to  begin  laying  the  founda- 
tion of  future  success,  and  as  we  know  we  have 
the  most  complete  system,  we  will  ask  you  to  care- 
fully follow  out  the  ideas,  herein  contained,  so 
that  you  may  become  workers  for  just  principles 
without  delay. 

Most  fraternally  yours  for  humanity's  sake, 

-THE  AUTHOR. 


LECTURE  NO.   I. 
CO-OPERATION 

There  is  no  question  in  the  minds  of  econom- 
ic students  but  that  the  present  "hard  times"  and 
unfair  condition  of  things  have  been  brought  about 
by  an  unjust  exchange  of  the  products  and  service, 
and  that  the  immediate  cause  lies  principally  in 
the  vicious  system  of  money,  known  as  "Legal 
Tender."  To  convince  those  who  have  not  yet 
established  that  fact  in  their  minds  we  will  refer 
them  to  De  Bernardi's  book,  "Trials  and  Triumph 
of  Labor,"  which  we  think  can  establish  it  to  any 
reasoning  human,  without  a  doubt. 

By  a  correct  system  of  just  principles  we  are 
of  necessity  forced  to  depend  upon  the  toil  of  man 
for  the  convenience  of  civilized  society,  therefore, 
our  motto  shall  be,  "In  Labor  We  Trust,"  instead 
of  putting  our  faith  in  an  inert  and  valueless  metal, 
as  do  the  hard  money  worshipers. 

Our  method  of  doing  business  does  not  inter- 
fere with  that  of  any  person  who  desires  to  do 
right  by  his  fellowman,  and  on  that  line  we  can 
boast  that  we  are  strictly  independent  to  do  as  we 
please  as  long  as  the  "Golden  Rule"  is  observed. 
In  case  of  difficulty  between  brethren,  we  invari- 
ably resort  to  arbitration  for  a  settlement. 

We  might  reason  upon  a  score  of  interesting 
topics  and  thus  carry  the  minds  of  our  readers 
from  subject  to  subject,  suggesting  innumerable, 
valuable  hints  and  yet  not  touch  upon  the  most  im- 
portant theme.  We  will,  therefore,  leave  that  part 
of  the  work  for  later  productions  and  confine  our- 
selves to  the  essential  task  of  establishing  true  and 
complete  exchange  of  the  products  of  toil,  the  lack 
of  which  has  caused  untold  misery  in  every  land. 


2.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

In  order  to  do  this  effectively  and  justly,  we  will  in- 
troduce the  only  correct  medium  of  trade  in  the 
form  of  a  labor  check  and  a  general  circulating 
certificate,  issued  only  on  products  and  to  the 
creators  of  wealth  in  correct  amounts,  and  re- 
deemable in  the  necessaries  and  luxuries  of  life, 
by  a  plan  not  to  be  mistaken  in  its  operations  and 
which  must  ere  long  bring  unprecedented  pros- 
perity to  all  worthy  laborers  of  the  world. 

As  we  meditate  upon  the  condition  of  things 
and  compare  the  past  with  the  present,  as  per  our 
recollection,  and  try  to  picture  before  our  mind 
the  probable  future  as  it  may  creep  upon  us  if  we 
continue  to  move  on  by  the  same  ruinous  plan, 
as  has  been  our  misfortune  for  centuries,  we  long 
for  a  condition  which  will  promise  and  guarantee 
us  a  brighter  and  better  prospect.  But,  alas, 
how  unsteady  are  the  varied  movements  of  the 
surrounding  appliances  to  which  \ve  have  so  long 
been  in  vain  looking  for  relief. 

Our  opportunities  have  been  continually 
growing  worse  from  year  to  year  ever  since  we 
can  remember,  and  unless  some  intervening  prov- 
idential movement  shall  change  our  course  there 
can  be  no  hope  for  the  oppressed  toilers  to  whom 
the  world  owes  so  much. 

Many  are  the  new  ideas  which  men  and  wo- 
men have  advanced  with  the  hope  that  a  higher 
plain  of  action  might  be  uncovered,  but  up  to  a 
very  late  date  all  such  projects  have  proven 
almost  valueless,  except  to  give  the  promoters  the 
benefit  of  sad  experience.  Yet,  at  least  some 
good  has  resulted  by  experimenting  and  enabling 
studious  and  inquisitive  observers  to  steer  clear 
of  the  danger  rocks  heretofore  so  fatal,  and  there- 
by arriving  at  more  perfect  conclusions  than  ever 
before. 

With  the  many  institutions  of  learning,  and 
with  the  numerous  organizations  for  the  enlighten- 
ment of  the  befogged  minds  throughout  the  length 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  3. 

and  breadth  of  the  land,  and  through  the  general 
crank  movement  which  has  been  afloat  in  the 
country,  at  will,  for  the  past  decade,  there  has 
arisen  a  tempest  of  unrest,  almost  beyond  the  con- 
trol of  loyal  blood.  The  dissatisfaction  has  grown 
so  great  that  the  eyes  of  the  nation  are  about 
ready  to  look  in  any  direction  from  which  relief 
is  promised. 

Many  are  the  panaceas  offered  by  honest  and 
even  unscrupulous  projectors,  yet  there  can  be 
only  one  correct  and  complete  remedy.  To  reach 
the  proper  conclusion  it  may  be  well  to  thoroughly 
investigate  all  plans  proposed,  yet,  if  there  is  one 
which  can  produce  positive  proof  sufficient  that 
it  has  no  fault,  then  it  may  be  well  to  cling  to 
it  as  the  long  sought  for  salvation.  To  this  latter 
conclusion  we  have  at  last  arrived,  after  a  dili- 
gent and  weary  search  for  correct  methods,  for  a 
number  of  consecutive  years. 

We  do  not  consider  our  knowledge  and  ex- 
perience exclusively  our  own,  and  as  we  believe 
that  a  free  flow  of  intelligent  thought  is  advan- 
tageous to  all  it  behoves  us  to  make  use  of  the 
privileges  nature  has  bestowed  upon  us  for  the 
grandest  good  to  the  greatest  number.  Narrow, 
selfish  principles  can  never  prosper,  and  although 
haughty,  arrogant,  unmerciful  averice  has  seem- 
ingly flourished  in  the  past,  we  can  assure  you 
that  its  time  is  well  nigh  spent  and  that  justice 
must  soon  take  its  place  at  the  head  of  business 
policies. 


LECTURE    NO.   II. 

THE  BALLOT  IS  BUT  A  SECONDARY 
CONSIDERATION. 

The  condition  of  our  minds  have  much  to  do 
with  the  actions  of  the  body,  and  together  they 
control  the  destiny  of  men.  If  we  allow  ourselves 


4.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

to  be  hoodwinked  by  a  bundle  of  absurdities,  then 
we  can  expect  but  an  unprofitable  outcome.  Why 
can  we  not  meet  in  our  various  organizations  and 
harmonize  in  a  co-operative  spirit  and  arrive  at  a 
fair  and  equitable  conclusion,  so  that  all  may  find 
the  right  track  which  leads  to  progress  and  un- 
bounded prosperity? 

So  much  is  said  about  the  alien  ownership  of 
land,  the  control  of  railroads,  the  increase  of  the 
circulating  medium,  and  a  dozen  other  proposi- 
tions which  seem  to  greatly  interest  many  of  our 
people  of  the  entire  union,  but  we  know  the  mas- 
ses have  not  yet  found  the  true  remedy.  These 
subjects  are  fast  becoming  the  most  attractive 
features  of  our  general  conversation,  and  when 
connected  with  political  discussion  engage  the  at- 
tention of  our  thinking  population,  male  and  fe- 
male. These  are  questions  of  vital  importance, 
and  should  be  properly  weighed  by  co-operative 
thinkers.  On  the  whole,  men  are  apt  to  be  led 
off  by  the  first  plausible  statement,  therefore  it  is 
best  to  hear  all  sides  and  consider  well  ere  hasty 
action  is  taken.  The  co-operative  work,  which 
can  best  be  advanced  by  co-operative  study  shoud 
be  discussed  in  the  various  organizations,  and 
then  concentrated  thought  will  point  to  the  most 
essential  mode  of  action. 

We  should  prefer  to  give  condensed  remarks 
upon  the  subject;  but  as  all  minds  are  not  in  the 
proper  frame  to  draw  correct  conclusions,  it  is 
thought  best  to  prepare  the  searching  elements  to 
meet  on  common  ground.  The  time  spent  in  get- 
ting the  great  mass  of  inquiring  thought  concen- 
trated upon  the  main  issue  before  the  people  is  not 
in  vain.  If  the  change  were  brought  on  too  rap- 
idly, the  result  might  prove  fatal  to  those  it  were 
aimed  to  relieve.  The  great  minds  of  the  com- 
mon people  must  be  kept  well  balanced,  and  they 
will  then  be  in  a  condition  to  meet  any  emergency. 
By  the  proper  exchange  of  thought  at  regular  pub- 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.       .  5. 

lie  meetings  much  can  be  accomplished  on  this 
line. 

The  making  of  good  country  roads  is  much 
agitated  of  late,  and  more  or  less  interests  us  all; 
therefore  let  it  be  considered  in  the  proper  light 
with  due  care  that  there  shall  not  be  any  more 
interest-bearing  bonds  issued  in  a  country  where 
the  people  love  freedom.  Interest-bearing  bonds 
and  perfect  liberty  cannot  abide  in  the  same  gov- 
ernment. By  a  proper  co-operation  every  nec- 
essary and  luxury  of  life  which  human  mind  can 
devise  and  labor  can  produce  may  be  enjoyed  by 
the  worthy  and  industrious  mortal.  The  philoso- 
phy of  true  co-operation  is  the  most  correct  and 
can  remedy  more  of  the  evils  now  existing  than 
any  other  one  proposition  agitated  by  the  Amer- 
ican people.  By  this  system  we  will  harm  no  one 
who  deals  justly  and  mercifully  with  his  fellow 
men,  yet  the  schemer,  the  speculator,  the  monop- 
olist, and  all  unjust  dealers  will  be  restrained  from 
plundering  the  unsuspecting  peaceful  producer. 

Is  it  not  a  fact  that  all  wealth  which  comes 
to  society  outside  of  the  infinite  power  of  the 
Almighty  must  be  produced  by  labor  in  some 
form?  And  this  being  granted,  we  ask  how  does 
it  happen  that  those  who  do  least  are  allowed  the 
most  of  the  wealth  produced  by  labor,  while  those 
who  produce  most  are  deprived  of  the  necessaries 
and  even  suffer  in  poverty  and  destitution?  We 
believe  in  an  equitable  exchange  of  labor 
for  labor,  but  are  severely  opposed  to  the 
exchange  of  created  wealth  by  labor,  for  deluding 
deceptions  which  are  entirely  valueless. 

Our  present  modes  of  trading-  are  a  delusion 
to  the  worthy,  active  members  of  society,  while  it 
is  continually  enriching  the  vagabonds  who  are 
engaged  in  swindling  honest  victims  and  pervert- 
ing the  public  on  economic  questions.  These  are 
simple  facts  understood  by  many  of  our  best  in- 
formed thinkers,  yet  the  way  out  is  not  so  easily 


6.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

apprehended  by  all.  Hence,  we  propose,  step  by 
step  to  advance  thoughts  which  shall  aid  in  reach- 
ing the  proper  solution  of  the  industrial  problem 
by  a  rule  of  universal  and  complete  co-operation. 
Civilization  will  soon  come  to  naught,  and  govern- 
ment end  in  chaos,  if  labor  is  ignored.  The 
power  lies  in  the  hands  of  the  producers.  Will 
we  help  ourselves?  The  ballot  is  but  a  secondary 
consideration.  The  equitable  exchange  of  labor 
is  the  subject  most  worthy  the  attention  and  study 
of  every  toiling  human.  Will  you  help  us  to 
investigate  it  and  bring  the  matter  before  the 
public  as  rapidly  as  possible? 


LECTURE  NO.   III. 
THE  BROTHERHOOD  OP  MAN. 

Many  worthy  people  of  all  factions  have  for 
years  past  felt  that  co-operation  was  the  only  cor- 
rect plan  upon  which  our  social  and  business 
propositions  should  be  based.  The  one  great 
obstacle  has  been  the  lack  of  a  complete  system 
marking  out  a  true  plan  of  operation,  and  the 
people's  inability  to  fully  comprehend  the  need 
of  such  united  action.  We  have  been  taught  to 
consider  ourselves  a  free  and  independent  people 
with  the  duty  of  each  to  paddle  his  own  craft, 
which  had  the  tendency  to  prevent  folks  from 
uniting  to  protect  themselves  from  the  common 
enemy  of  the  wealth  producers.  While  the  toilers 
continued  single  handed  to  create  all  the  wealth 
they  could,  in  order  to  lay  up  some  for  emer- 
gencies, another  class  combined  to  accumulate 
the  products  by  speculations,  sharp  dealings, 
usury  and  monopoly,  until  it  has  ceased  being  a 
virtue  to  bear  undue  burdens. 

When  a  class  of  business  men  unite  to  pro- 
tect themselves  or  extort  from  others  it  is  not 
proper  to  call  such  an  organization  co-operative. 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  7. 

Even  the  Grangers  in  their  (so  called)  co-opera- 
tive enterprises  are  to  a  certain  extent  monopo- 
listic, as  well  as  are  all  other  factional  combina- 
tions. No  system  can  be  purely  co  operative  un- 
less every  creature  of  the  human  family  is  given  a 
free  and  equitable  opportunity  to  take  part  and 
exchange  value  for  value  in  proportion  to  the 
products  created  by  such  individual.  If  the 
money  loaner  and  the  legislator  combine  to  rob 
and  swindle  ihe  people  it  is  a  monstrosity  for  evil. 
If  a  class  of  mechanics  unite  to  raise  wages  or 
shorten  the  hours  of  labor,  it  is  a  union  that 
will  never  succeed  well  because  it  has  the  opposi- 
tion of  all  the  other  classes  to  contend  with.  If 
the  farmers  unite  to  save  themselves  from  the 
middlemen  and  conduct  their  own  stores,  the  mer- 
chants and  a  number  of  other  factions  are  antago- 
nized, and  the  business  is  simply  a  system  of  com- 
bination of  one  class  against  another.  There  is 
very  little  gained  by  any  of  these  combinations, 
as  the  whole  must  eventually  succumb  to  the  grasp 
of  the  more  powerful  combination  of  the  money 
monopoly,  unless  a  true  system  of  co-operation 
can  be  instituted  by  the  wealth  creators  upon  the 
plan  of  the  "Labor  Exchange."  Farmers'  co- 
operative stores  do  not  create  wealth,  but  merely 
trade  in  goods  and  make  profits  on  the  sales.  By 
this  method  they  divide  what  they  have  paid  in 
over  the  cost  of  goods,  clerk  hire,  interest  on 
capital,  etc.  By  this  plan  it  is  easily  to  be  seen 
that  those  who  have  the  fat  salaries  in  the  job  or 
draw  the  usury,  are  of  the  richest  or  are  rapidly 
drifting  in  that  direction,  while  the  ordinary  pa- 
tron is  paying  well  for  what  he  gets  and  helping  to 
feather  the  nests  of  the  favored  few.  Such  is  the 
tendency  of  the  celebrated  and  much-prized 
Rochdale  system  as  being  conducted  to-day,  if 
history  on  this  line  serves  us  properly. 

The    teachings    of    generations    are   hard    to 
overcome,  yet  the  time  is  now  at  hand  for  a  radi- 


8.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

cal  and  peaceful  change.  Correct  methods  must 
be  instituted  to  take  the  place  of  the  erroneous 
ideas  of  the  past.  We  are  a  great  nation  of  in- 
quisitive and  inventive  spirits  from  every  climate 
and  every  condition  known  to  man.  Why  should 
we  not  improve  upon  our  system  of  exchange  as 
well  as  upon  anything  else  that  will  tend  to  better 
the  condition  of  the  human  family?  We  should 
not  be  selfish  or  narrow  in  our  views;  we  can  afford 
to  be  generous.  Yet  we,  the  toiling  masses,  have 
been  magnanimously  liberal  for  these  thousands 
of  years  past,  and  have  at  last  concluded  that 
injustice  should  not  forever  burden  and  oppress 
the  most  noble  of  God's  creatures.  The  wealth 
of  the  world  is  the  result  of  labor.  The  proper 
co-operation  of  the  producers  and  their  auxilia- 
ries in  exchanging  wealth  by  an  equitable  plan  is 
desirable  to  all  honest  men,  and  its  advantages  to 
society  would  be  many  fold.  By  a  just  and  fair 
exchange  of  labor  no  one  need  suffer  if  willing  to 
do  an  honest  turn  for  the  benefit  of  himself  and 
others.  Have  you  ever  thought  that  something 
must  be  wrong  with  our  present  system,  when  the 
idle,  non-producing  speculators  accumulate  wealth 
which  labor  has  produced,  while  labor  lives  in 
hovels  and  begs  for  the  necessities  of  life  or  for 
an  opportunity  to  be  employed  in  a  world  which 
is  yet  so  far  from  being  completed?  We  can 
remedy  all  this  injustice  in  a  very  short  time  by  a 
true  system  of  co-operation,  known  to  advance 
thought  as  the  "Labor  Exchange."  Will  you  in- 
vestigate this  plan  which  leads  direct  to  the 
"Brotherhood  of  man  and  Fatherhood  of  God?" 


LECTURE   NO.   IV. 
TO  EMPLOY  THE  IDLE. 

Of    what    value    can    plodding,    thoughtless 
humans  be  to  civilization  unless  it  is  to  perform 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  9. 

a  mechanical  part  in  the  drama  of  life's  evolution? 
We  feel  as  though  their  room  is  more  valuable 
than  their  presence.  If  it  were  not  for  the  vast 
army  of  thoughtless  humanity  and  the  vicious 
avarice  of  the  vagabond  idle  (usually  called  rich) 
the  progress  of  God's  workers  could  not  be  de- 
scribed. New  things  and  new  ideas  are  being 
discovered  and  thought  of  in  rapid  succession, 
but  the  sluggishness  of  the  masses  and  the  un- 
righteous desires  and  dealings  of  many  others 
makes  the  labors  of  the  thinking  class  very  tire- 
some and  tedious.  Education  is  of  but  little  value 
in  the  making  of  a  man  unless  solid  thought  is 
employed,  and  he  who  can  start  the  minds  of  men 
to  action  and  draw  them  into  a  channel  that  will 
tend  to  lead  humanity  to  a  higher  and  nobler  con- 
dition must  indeed  be  a  benefactor  to  his  kind. 

Many  of  our  thinking  workers  have  different 
lines  upon  which  their  thoughts  seem  to  run. 
Some  believe  in  one  thing,  while  others  advocate 
another.  Single  tax,  graduated  and  accumulative 
tax,  initiative  and  referendum  law-making,  Hare's 
preferential  system  of  representation,  the  abolition 
of  president,  vice  president,  United  States  senate, 
governors  and  state  senators,  etc.,  free  trade,  free 
country,  woman's  suffrage,  and  equality  to  all 
mankind  are  all  valuable  ideas  to  consider,  and  if 
adopted  would  virtually  bring  man  to  a  state  akin 
to  true  co-operation  or  labor  exchange.  But  the 
method  by  which  either  one  of  those  propositions 
is  to  be  brought  into  force  as  projected  by  its 
friends  is  by  way  of  law  or  the  ballot,  which  is  a 
very  slow  and  uncertain  method  at  best.  One 
change  seems  to  be  about  all  a  generation  can 
accomplish  in  a  political  contest,  at  least  history 
in  this  country  looks  that  way. 

We  should  not  forget  that  the  people  who 
labor  by  mind  or  muscle  are  the  only  ones  who 
create  wealth,  and  should  they  apply  their  strength 
properly  and  think  out  a  plan  of  co-operative 


10.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

action,  they  alone  could  enjoy  all  the  necessaries 
and  luxuries  which  the  hands  and  minds  of  men 
can  produce.  Why  not  be.^in  at  once  -  be^in  at 
the  foundation  and  build  correctly?  "Do  ye  the 
will  of  the  Lord  and  all  things  shall  be  added  unto 
ye."  Much  good  seems  to  come  out  of  the  vari- 
ous combinations  and  the  oppression  of  the  wealth 
producers,  as  it  is  causing  them  to  think  more 
than  ever  before.  If  the  process  now  being  made 
use  of  to  oppress  the  people  was  less  rapid,  the 
money  power  could  be  more  sure  to  succeed. 
Man  must  indeed  be  very  dull  of  apprehension  if 
the  rapid  downward  tendency  of  the  past  thirty 
years  has  not  caused  him  to  think  that  some  better 
plan  of  action  should  be  inaugurated.  The  plans 
thought  of  are  various.  Communism,  nationalism, 
co-operation,  monarchy,  anarchy,  federalism, 
socialism,  prohibition,  fiat  money,  and  a  number 
of  other  propositions,  and  yet  they  have  not  suc- 
ceeded, nor  is  it  likely  that  they  will  soon  on  so 
many  disjointed,  unsystematized  conjectures. 

It  is  but  natural  for  people  to  differ  as  to  the 
cause  of  certain  conditions;  but  if  they  would 
unite  in  co-operative  meetings,  clear  their  minds 
of  prejudice,  take  on  a  brown  study  and  learn  the 
labor  exchange  mode  of  operation  (which  can  be 
successfully  handled  by  a  few,  and  is  the  only 
show  on  earth  to  get  permanent  relief),  they  will 
soon  see  that  we  mean  business  and  know  what 
we  are  driving  at. 

It  is  fair  and  just  that  every  person  should 
have  a  right  to  work  whenever  they  choose,  and 
that  they  should  be  allowed  a  fair  exchange  of 
products  with  other  laborers.  No  one  should  be 
allowed  to  prevent  others  from  producing  some- 
thing useful  to  mankind.  Those  who  have  by 
man-made  laws  and  unjust  dealing  taken  posses- 
sion of  our  public  domain  and  the  accumulated 
wealth  of  generations  have  no  moral  right  to  dic- 
tate the  price  of  products  nor  the  amount  of  labor 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  II. 

man  shall  perform  to  sustain  life.  No  man  has  a 
right  to  live  at  the  expense  of  his  fellow  creatures 
as  long  as  he  is  able  to  do  some  useful,  mental  or 
manual  labor.  The  plan  that  we  would  have  our 
reform  friends  study  is  the  result  of  forty  years  of 
meditation  and  comparison,  gathered  by  practical 
investigation  from  every  civilized  nation  of  the 
globe,  and  is  such  as  no  man  of  reason  can  oppose. 
Agitators  who  are  still  making  the  same  arguments 
they  did  a  few  years  ago  are  indeed  very  poor 
leaders,  and  will  soon  need  to  make  a  change  or 
be  left  with  the  enemy  of  progress.  Shall  it  take 
us  a  generation  to  develop  one  little  idea  before 
we  take  up  a  new  one?  No,  we  think  not.  We 
favor  taking  up  all  the  good  plans  and  putting 
them  into  active  operation  at  once  without  even 
waiting  for  a  voting  majority.  We  have  all  the 
laws  and  more  laws  than  we  need  now.  We  do 
not  propose  to  make  any  aggressive  fight  on  any- 
body in  particular,  and  propose  to  give  every  one 
a  fair  and  equitable  share  in  proportion  to  the 
service  rendered  to  humanity.  The  proposition 
is  to  lead  on  and  show  the  way  to  success  and 
prosperity  for  the  worthy  wealth  producer.  To 
employ  idle  labor  and  provide  an  equitable  ex- 
change among  the  producers,  and  thereby  prevent 
usury,  speculation,  monopoly  and  theft,  To 
destroy  the  advance  thought  is  to  slay  progress 
in  its  inception.  The  time  is  at  hand  when  we 
need  the  best  minds  in  active  operation  to  guide 
swiftly  the  oppressed  slaves  of  plutocracy  to  the 
haven  of  peace  and  plenty. 

The  issue  of  more  money  by  the  government 
will  not  produce  more  wealth,  Money  is  not 
wealth,  and  when  issued  by  the  government  does 
not  make  the  producing  class  any  richer.  The 
only  way  that  wealth  is  produced  is  by  labor;  and 
money,  to  be  a  genuine  medium  of  exchange, 
must  never  be  issued  except  for  the  real  value 
deposited,  something  similar  to  a  sub-treasury 


12.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

plan.  When  no  value  is  deposited  no  exchange  is 
issued,  and  consequently  those  who  want  exchange 
must  produce  wealth  to  get  it.  In  this  way  simple 
and  complete  co-operation  can  be  at  once  estab- 
lished in  any  locality  where  wealth  is  produced. 

A  fair  exchange  of  products  is  no  robery; 
and  as  the  toiling  people  create  all,  why  not  ex- 
change all,  then  have  all,  and  quit  complaining 
about  the  other  fellow  who  will  be  compelled  to 
shift  for  himself  or  get  left  in  the  race  for  pros- 
perity? This  method  gives  every  man,  woman 
and  child  full  remuneration  in  proper  ratio  for 
their  usefulness  to  the  human  family  and  gives  all 
a  fair  chance  to  help  themselves  to  God's  bount- 
eous blessings  in  proportion  as  they  are  willing  to 
aid  in  the  great  workshop  of  civilization.  This 
perfect  system  of  "labor  exchange"  is  now  in 
working  order  in  a  number  of  places  in  the  Unit- 
ed States. 


LECTURE   NO.   V. 
FOUND  A  COMPLETE  REMEDY. 

We  have  liberally  mentioned  the  Labor  Ex- 
change principles  in  these  lectures  and  hope  the 
studious  reformers  and  wealth  producers  of  the 
entire  world  will  take  an  active  interest  in  the 
system.  We  wish  to  attract  the  attention  of  re- 
form literary  writers  and  newspaper  publishers,  so 
that  the  great  importance  of  this  matter  may  be- 
come generally  discussed  and  our  plans  adopted 
ere  it  shall  be  too  late  to  cast  off  the  yoke. 

If  the  people  could  comprehend  in  the  least 
degree  how  much  this  subject  should  interest  them, 
and  how  much  the  welfare  and  happiness  of  them- 
selves and  future  generations  depends  upon  the 
solution  of  this  one  problem  alone,  how  anxious 
they  would  be  to  learn  of  its  merits  and  put  into 
practice  its  teachings.  Thit,  alas!  how  subtle  is 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  13. 

the  average  human,  even  so  much  so  as  to  suspect 
all  humanity  to  be  even  less  trustworthy  than 
themselves  This  is  all  very  severe  upon  the 
progress  of  our  race.  Reformers  and  "cranks" 
are  usually  far  in  advance  in  the  ideas  of  justice 
and  equity,  and  to  doubt  their  sincerity  is  to 
retard  the  onward  movement  of  civilization.  The 
conservative  elements  are,  in  most  cases,  an 
interference  to  the  march  of  enlightenment. 

Many  of  the  readers  may  desire  some  expla- 
nation as  to  the  peculiar  methods  of  the  Labor 
Exchange  for  which  we  predict  so  much.  It  will 
be  impossible  to  outline  it  in  a  few  articles  for 
publication  so  that  all  may  fully  understand  its 
power  and  usefulness,  although  it  is  indeed  the 
most  simple  system  to  comprehend  and  operate  if 
we  could  be  induced  to  discard  the  prejudices 
and  dogmas  so  deep-rooted  in  the  minds  of  the 
masses  for  the  past  hundreds  of  years.  The 
false  idea  as  to  what  money  and  its  functions  are 
has  kept  the  human  race  in  bondage  for  many 
generations,  and  is  still  doing  its  devilish  work. 
The  quotation  that  "The  love  of  money  is  the 
root  of  all  evil,"  is  certainly  very  nigh  correct, 
and  full  of  meaning  to  the  student  of  economy. 
The  proper  function  of  genuine  money  is  but 
similar  to  an  open  day-book,  by  which  it  may  be 
readily  seen  in  what  proportion  the  holder  should 
receive  of  the  wealth  produced  by  the  united 
efforts  of  all  the  industrial  forces. 

Instead  of  issuing  money  by  law  to  thousands 
of  useless  officers  who  have  not  created  one  spear 
of  real  wealth — and  then  have  them,  through  the 
aid  of  speculators  and  money  gamblers,  dole  it 
out  by  piecemeal  for  real  wealth  and  on  loans, 
robbing  the  producers  of  their  hard-earned  cre- 
ations by  giving  them  only  a  little  worthless  stuff, 
called  money,  in  exchange — we  prefer  to  make 
use  of  a  plan  of  proper  equitable  exchange  in 
which  the  real  producer  alone  can  control  the 


14.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    H^ND    BOOK 

trade  aifd  make  use  of  a  co-operative  check  which 
will  show  upon  its  face  that  an  equivalent  of  real 
value  has  been  produced  by  the  holder  for  the  ben- 
efit of  the  human  family,  and  that  he  is  entitled 
to  that  amount  of  wealth  from  the  toil  of  other 
producers  without  imposition  on  the  part  of  any 
one.  In  the  former  transaction  any  one  who  can 
get  hold  of  money  by  fair  or  foul  means  has  the 
power,  by  law,  to  rob  the  wealth  producer  of  his 
creation,  and  yet  give  no  equivalent  except  that 
same  lawful  stuff  to  rob  some  one  else  with  in  the 
same  way.  By  the  Labor  Exchange  plan  only 
those  who  have  produced  something  for  the  ben- 
efit of  humanity  can  receive  the  check  which  will 
get  an  equitable  share  of  the  produce  created  by 
some  one  else,  and  as  these  checks  will  cost  no 
interest,  and  are  not  controlled  by  vicious  laws, 
two  very  important  points  will  be  gained.  Gov- 
ernment money  is  always  sure  to  fall  into  the 
control  of  the  officers  and  the  rich  money  gam- 
blers, and  gives  the  producers  a  very  small 
margin,  while  the  Exchange  check  is  entirely  in 
the  control  of  those  who  in  reality  produce 
wealth.  By  making  use  of  this  system  the  pro- 
ducers would  be  truly  co-operative  in  the  use  of 
checks  of  exchange.  Which  do  you  prefer, 
friends?  Can  you  decide? 

Some  people  at  once  conclude  that  this  might 
do  for  local  exchange,  but  ask  how  they  could 
get  something  from  a  distance  or  in  case  they 
might  want  to  ride  on  the  railroad.  Would  not 
the  railroad  soon  belong  to  labor,  and  also  the 
goods  at  a  distance?  And  at  first  a  simple  remedy 
might  be  applied  by  exchanging  some  products 
for  "lawful  money,"  and  the  more  the  checks  are 
used  the  easier  it  would  be  to  get  government,  or 
speculators'  money.  Drafts  and  bills  of  exchange 
are  used  to  balance  accounts  at  present;  and  why 
not  continue  the  same,  and  introduce  it  in  local 
business  as  well?  The  money  idea  is  a  delusion 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  15. 

and  intended  to  swindle  the  laboring  people. 
Why  not  exchange  wealth  for  wealth?  Govern- 
ment money  is  not  wealth,  neither  does  it  repre- 
sent wealth.  It  never  laid  up  a  stone  nor  drove 
a  nail,  but  is  an  inert  and  valueless  stuff  and  a  de- 
ception. Why  is  it  that  the  men  who  labor,  econ- 
omize and  produce  much,  and  build  many  huge 
structures,  are  generally  found  living  in  small,  rent 
ed  houses,  while  those  who  stand  idly  by  plan,  plot, 
scheme  and  speculate,  claim  everything  within 
sight,  and  hold  an  option  on  what  is  supposed  to 
appear  in  the  future?  Is  that  the  way  to  co-oper- 
ate? No!  Neither  is  it  labor  exchange.  Why 
are  things  so  now?  Principally  because  of  our 
vicious  customs  in  finance,  known  as  the  mone- 
tary system. 

We  believe  that  the  producers  of  wealth — 
necessaries,  comforts  and  luxuries  of  life — should 
have  a  liberal  and  equitable  share  of  their  pro- 
ductions before  the  vagabonds  and  pimps  of  so- 
ciety should  be  pampered.  If  too  indolent  to  do 
anything  of  value  for  the  human  race,  why  not 
suffer  the  consequence?  Co-operative  labor  and 
the  proper  exchange  will  increase  the  happiness 
of  man  one  hundred-fold;  and  as  a  friend  writes 
by  private  letter,  that  he  is  satisfied  "we  shall 
reach  that  point  where  the  people  will  not  sit 
down  and  resolve  and  pray  to  a  false  political  god, 
but  will  reach  out  and  take  hold  of  the  hand  of 
labor  and  materials  and  work  out  their  own  salva- 
tion." 

By  reading  and  studying  "Trials  and  Tri- 
umphs of  Labor,"  by  G.  B.  De  Bernardi — price  50 
cents,  the  student  of  political  economy  will  strike 
a  mint  of  valuable  facts  and  illustrations  which 
are  beyond  estimation  to  any  one.  Those  who 
believe  in  equality  and  justice  cannot  afford  to 
evade  the  study  on  this  line  of  thought.  Facts 
must  force  themselves  upon  our  minds  sooner  or 
later,  and  the  quicker  we  are  apprised  of  our  er- 


l6.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

rors  the  better  it  will  be  for  us  and  our  posterity,, 
Every  day  that  we  allow  to  pass  by  in  the  old  way 
is  valuable  time  lost  never  to  return.  One  ad- 
vance worker  in  a  county  can  do  a  wonderful 
amount  of  good  in  this  line  of  thought  if  he  will 
but  persevere.  The  partial  co-operation  or  co- 
partnership business  of  which  we  have  seen  and 
read  in  the  past  has  not  been  a  success,  neither 
has  the  competitive  system  proven  beneficial  to 
those  who  produce.  Strikes  for  higher  wages  and 
shorter  days,  and  secret  societies  have  virtually 
failed  as  yet  to  accomplish  much  else  but  con- 
tention and  dissatisfaction.  Factions,  societies, 
clubs  aud  parties  of  religious  or  political  caste 
have  accomplished  comparatively  nothing,  and 
at  best  are  very  sluggish  and  unreliable.  All 
these  things  and  many  others  have  been  tried,  and 
yet  here  we  are  near  the  close  of  the  nineteenth 
century  rapidly  going  downward  as  a  mass  of  hu- 
man freight  to  an  awful  destruction;  and  were  it 
not  for  the  "salt"  of  our  race  in  the  form  of  such 
men  as  the  illustrious  author  above  mentioned, 
we  should  certainly  perish  in  speedy  succession. 

We  now  have  found  a  complete  remedy,  pure 
and  simple,  which  we  believe  will  solve  all  diffi- 
culties for  a  thousand  years  and  bring  the  mil- 
lenium  by  true  co-operation  and  Labor  Exchange, 


LECTURE  NO.  VI. 

TO  TRUST  IN  LABOR, 

There  can  be  but  one  true  principle  upon 
which  successful  co-operation  must  be  based,  and 
that  is  found  only  in  the  Labor  Exchange  system. 
The  human  race  has  had  many  earnest  workers 
searching  for  principles  for  past  centuries,  and 
hosts  are  still  endeavoring  to  find  the  path  which 
leads  to  bliss.  There  is  but  one  plan,  and  there 
can  be  no  other.  When  you  truly  find  it  you  will 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  17. 

know  that  it  is  the  right  one.  Beware  of  impos- 
tors, who,  like  the  apt  convert,  concludes  that  he 
has  the  pure  light  when  it  is  merely  the  reflection 
from  a  false  impression  formed  by  a  too  hasty 
conclusion. 

The  foremulator  of  the  Labor  Exchange  sys- 
tem of  co-opration,  is  an  uncommonly  shrewd, 
far  sighted,  deep  thinker  and  is  well  up  in  years. 
He  has  made  this  matter  the  study  of  a  life-time, 
investigating  the  plans  and  workings  of  all  the 
various  organizations  instituted  or  proposed  to 
better  the  condition  of  toiling  humanity  through- 
out the  civilized  nations  of  the  world,  and  has 
reached  a  point  where  operation  needs  only  to 
complete  perfection.  We  ask  you  to  make  your 
own  judgment  after  careful,  complete  and  sincere 
examination.  Our  proof  is  sufficient  guarantee 
for  all  our  assertions.  Will  you  turn  upward  or 
continue  to  go  downward  to  ruini* 

The  Labor  Exchange  is  chartered  under  the 
state  laws  of  Missouri  as  a  benevolent  association, 
and  all  other  Labor  Exchange  associations  are 
but  branches  of  the  one  general  organization. 
Without  harmony  there  can  be  no  success.  One 
of  its  first  objects  is  to  open  an  intelligence 
bureau  to  employ  the  idle  labor  and  give  steady 
employment  to  any  who  may  apply,  thereby  aid- 
ing the  needy  to  support  themselves,  reduce  the 
pauper  taxation  and  also  increase  the  demand  for 
the  productions  of  others.  This  will  cure  the 
tramp  evil  and  greatly  elevate  the  condition  of 
toiling  humanity.  This  system  is  so  arranged  as 
to  retain  the  wealth  created  by  labor  in  the  con- 
trol of  those  who  produce  it,  hence  cutting  off  all 
speculation  or  monopoly  now  feeding  upon  the 
toiling  masses. 

The  cost  of  a  life  time  membership  is  $i. 
It  does  not  interfere  with  any  one's  individual 
business,  but  instead  gives  additional  facilities 
and  many  new  advantages  to  its  members.  This 


l8.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

institution  is  for  the  American  people  who  love 
freedom  and  liberty,  without  regard  to  party, 
creed,  age,  sex,  color,  condition,  number  or  loca- 
tion. It  has  been  organized  for  some  time  in 
various  places  and  proven  a  success  wherever 
tried,  and  is  now  attracting  the  attention  of  the 
most  advanced  thinkers  of  the  continent,  who  feel 
the  need  of  perfect  organization  to  bring  about 
the  proper  solution  of  the  labor  problem.  Many 
new  plans  are  being  devised,  but  all  combined  are 
of  little  consequence  when  measured  by  the  side 
of  Labor  Exchange.  This  is  a  charitable  institu- 
tion based  upon  genuine  business  principles,  in 
which  the  giver  and  receiver  both  will  be  bene- 
fitted.  It  also  contains  a  beneficiary  department 
in  case  of  disability,  death,  fire  or  other  misfor- 
tunes without  assessments  or  dues. 

As  labor  produces  wealth,  we  have  conclud 
ed  to  ''trust  in  labor,"  instead  of  in  gold  in  order 
that  all  wrongs  may  be  righted  by  a  more  tangi- 
ble plan  than  that  of  partisan  prejudice.  The 
ballot  box  at  best  is  a  very  slow  and  uncertain 
method,  and  takes  public  sentiment  or  bribery  to 
control,  while  tricky  politicians  and  bloated  bond- 
holders grow  fat  on  the  products  of  the  indus- 
trious. The  "love  of  money  is  the  root  of  all 
evil,"  and  our  minds  have  been  blurred  with  lies 
about  the  "money  of  nations"  for  centuries.  Is 
it  possible  that  when  gold  has  gone  out  of  the 
country  that  our  soil  is  reduced  to  non-production 
and  our  hands  must  all  cease  to  be  employed? 
Is  not  money  a  false  and  tyranical  god,  or  are 
the  people  fools  and  knaves?  The  worshipers  of 
such  an  idol  will  commit  any  crime  to  obtain  it. 
Hoarded  wealth  makes  no  man  enjoy  life,  yet  the 
necessaries  and  comforts  are  essential  to  human 
happiness,  and  the  answer  of  a  clear  conscience 
brings  joy  to  old  age. 

The  Labor  Exchange  conducts  its  own  finan- 
cial transactions  upon  the  most  complete  method 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  IQ. 

known  to  the  civilized  world.  Most  of  the  busi- 
ness of  the  United  States  is  done  by  checks,  cer- 
tificates and  drafts,  to  the  benefit  of  the  rich  and 
the  detriment  of  the  poor.  Why  can  we  not 
go  a  little  further  in  this  matter  and  use  the 
check  system  in  all  cases,  and  base  them  upon 
the  real  wealth  produced  by  the  laboring  people? 
When  labor  produces  all  wealth,  why  should  not 
checks  be  issued  upon  the  wealth  in  accord  to  the 
amount  produced?  This  would  give  each  a  fail- 
share  of  the  products,  in  proportion  to  his  deserts, 
and  at  the  same  time  cut  off  all  the  usury  features 
now  so  baneful  in  monetary  transactions.  It  can 
make  very  little  difference  how  much  legal  tender 
money  the  government  issues  or  how  low  the  rate 
of  interest,  as  the  principle  is  wrong  and  cannot 
bring  permanent  relief.  The  money  comes  from 
the  wrong  source  and  the  system  is  a  robbery  to  the 
laboring  masses.  The  greatest  trouble  civilization 
has  to  contend  with  is  the  false  ideas  in  regard  to 
what  money  and  its  functions  are.  The  Labor 
Exchange  clears  away  that  cloud  entirely  and 
brings  prosperity  at  once.  We  have  the  most 
complete  system  of  finance  of  the  civilized  nations, 
and  establish  our  own  exchanges  and  clearing 
houses. 

There  is  no  communism,  no  socialism  nor  an- 
archy in  this.  It  is  the  result  of  forty  years  of 
study  and  travel  by  the  author,  who  has  visited 
every  nation  of  the  earth.  Why  do  not  the  labor- 
ing men  who  build  houses  and  improve  the  earth 
have  a  fair  share  of  the  wealth?  Why  is  it  that 
the  men  who  never  did  an  honest  day's  labor  in 
their  lives,  have  now  in  their  possession  many 
houses  and  are  renting  them  to  the  men  who 
really  produced  the  wealth?  There  certainly  must 
be  something  radically  wrong.  We  know  it  and 
can  give  the  correct  solution  —  the  true  remedy. 
The  permanent  wealth  is  now  rapidly  going  into 
the  control  of  the  plutocrats. 


20.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

The  Labor  Exchange  is,,  in  fact,  something 
better  than  the  sub-treasury  plan  we  hear  so  much 
about.  In  this  case  we  can  bank  at  pleasure  upon 
our  product  in  case  we  have  produced  value  for 
deposit.  No  one  should  surfer  for  the  necessaries 
and  luxuries  of  life  in  a  land  of  plenty.  We  need 
no  majority  to  organize  and  receive  benefits  from 
this  institution.  One  or  two  dozen  men  or  women 
can  put  this  plan  into  operation  and  a  vast  amount 
of  good  may  soon  be  accomplished.  Where  this 
plan  is  operated  it  must  be  successful,  but  the  idle 
may  fare  badly.  Many  good  citizens  are  favor- 
able to  Bellamy's  idea,  but  this  is  far  in  advance 
of  that  and  gives  immediate  relief  by  operation. 

There  is  no  secret  in  this  organization  but  it 
reaches  out  a  helping  hand  to  every  worthy  citizen. 
Partisan  politics,  sectarianism,  prejudice  and  dog- 
mas are  all  discarded,  while  justice  and  equality 
stand  at  the  head  of  the  column,  with  charity  and 
brotherly  love  for  the  foundation.  True,  earnest 
reformers  should  study  the  Labor  Exchange  sys- 
tem and  principles  thoroughly.  It  is  in  fact  the 
only  way  out  of  bondage.  It  is  genuine  co-opera 
tion,  not  co-partnership  nor  monopoly.  The  only 
way  to  create  wealth  is  by  the  exertion  of  mind 
and  muscle.  Money  issued  by  law  does  not  create 
wealth  in  any  form.  Mr.  V.  A.  Wilson,  of  North 
Carolina,  in  a  private  letter  lately  says:  "As  a 
financial  system  the  Exchange  is  ne  plus  ultra;  it 
enthrones  labor  and  will  utterly  destroy  the  sharp 
practices  of  the  Shylocks  and  sharpers.  It  will 
create  a  new  business  world  in  which  the  produc- 
ers will  alone  have  a  standing.  God  bless  and 
prosper  you  in  every  effort." 

Since  writing  the  above,  Bro.  Wilson  has  or- 
ganized several  branches  of  the  Labor  Exchange 
and  is  successfully  managing  No.  n,  at  Pfafftown, 
N.  C.  We  want  more  men  and  women  who  will 
follow  his  example.  The  laborer  is  worthy  of  his 
hire,  and  the  reward  is  sure  to  follow  good  works. 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE. 


LECTURE  NO.   VII. 
LESS  WORK  AND  BETTER  PAY. 

The  Labor  Exchange  system  is  not  an  untried 
ufad."  It  has  been  in  successful  operation  in 
several  places  for  more  than  a  year  past,  and  is 
now  being  introduced  in  a  number  of  new  localities 
where  the  people  believe  that  labor  is  the  only 
source  of  wealth,  and  that  honest  toil  has  a  per- 
fect right  to  a  share  of  the  good  things  of  this  life. 
This  is  the  next  and  final  upheaval  of  the  Ameri- 
can people,  and  is  the  only  plan  that  can  give 
permanent  relief. 

Our  first  proposition  is  to  employ  idle  labor 
by  the  aid  of  an  employment  bureau,  bringing  the 
laborer  and  employer  together,  and  for  this  aid 
we  do  not  charge,  as  we  are  a  benevolent  associa- 
tion and  wish  to  do  good  unto  our  unfortunate 
brothers  and  sisters  who  are  out  of  profitable 
work.  The  second  object  is  to  engage  in  some 
plant  whereby  we  may  produce  more  wealth  by 
employing  the  idle  and  thereby  provide  means 
for  a  great  many  who  would  otherwise  depend 
considerably  upon  the  public  charities.  We  claim 
it  is  better  to  employ  the  idle  at  some  useful  in- 
dustry, elevating  them  to  a  higher  condition  and 
improve  the  entire  social  standing,  than  to  cast 
them  out  as  a  burden  upon  humanity.  The 
more  we  employ  the  people  and  give  them  fair 
and  equitable  exchanges,  as  is  our  method,  the 
more  will  be  the  demand  for  the  product  which 
is  being  produced  by  others. 

In  order  that  we  may  be  enabled  to  keep 
strict  account  with  all  our  .members  in  every 
particular  and  base  our  exchanges  upon  the  most 
accurate  and  just  plan,  we  have  devised  a  system 
of  certificates  of  .deposits  which  can  be  used  in 


22.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND     BOOK 

any  of  our  trades  between  orfe  producer  and  an- 
other, or  even  betvyeen  the  outside  world,  if  they 
conclude  to  deal  with  us  upon  our  plan.  There 
can  be  no  fairer  method  of  exchange  than  that 
one  producer  should  place  his  surplus  upon  the 
general  exchange  and  receive  certificates  of  de- 
posits which  can  draw  equal  value  of  the 
surplus  deposit  of  some  other  producer.  While 
in  ordinary  business,  the  holders  of  these  deposit 
certificates  can  trade  and  retrade  as  much  as  they 
have  a  mind  to,  as  long  as  their  "checks"  hold 
out.  In  no  case  does  the  Labor  Exchange  issue 
deposit  certificates  unless  the  deposit  is  genuinely 
made  in  due  form.  These  certificates  are  not 
money,  yet  they  make  a  convenient  article  of 
trade  where  money  is  hard  to  get.  They  are  safer 
from  loss  or  destruction  because  they  are  made 
out  to  the  one  who  has  in  reality  produced  the 
wealth  which  they  are  intended  to  represent. 

All  plans  which  claim  to  be  on  the  co-oper- 
ative line  and  do  not  conform  to  this  system  are 
a  delusion,  and  will  never  succeed  in  giving  the 
permanent  relief  so  much  sought  for  by  the  noble 
reformers.  As  we  have  stated,  the  Rochdale  sys- 
tem is  not  complete,  and  has  failed  in  almost 
every  case,  while  in  no  instance  has  it  succeeded 
to  elevate  the  conditions  of  its  members  higher 
than  the  surrounding  community;  neither  has  it 
materially  benefitted  the  district  in  which  it  has 
operated. 

The  Labor  Exchange  is  arranged  and  con- 
ducted so  that  no  one  need  suffer  in  case  he  will 
toil  and  take  a  fair  exchange  for  his  product.  No 
one  is  debarred,  but  each  is  given  a  fair  chance 
to  produce  all  he  can  and  get  in  proportion  to  his 
creation. 

A  simple  plan  of  operation  in  a  place  where 
a  store  or  warehouse  is  needed  would  be  to  gather 
the  government  money  which  can  be  raised  as  de- 
sired from  the  individual  members,  and  deposit 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  23. 

it  in  the  general  treasury,  of  the  Labor  Exchange, 
then  issue  to  each  member  certificates  to  the 
amount  of  which  they  paid  in.  This  would  then 
allow  the  Exchange  to  use  the  money  deposited 
to  buy  stock  for  store,  and  members  would  also1 
hold  "-checks"  good  to  trade  among  themselves 
or  whoever  would  take  them,  and  when  they  want- 
ed anything  at  the  store  those  "checks"  would  buy 
the  same  as  government  currency,  while  the  profit 
in  the  store  exchange  remains  in  the  business. 
Now,  for  instance,  everybody,  as  a  rule,  buys 
from  $100  to  $300  worth  of  goods  at  the  store  in 
a  year,  and  suppose  they  would  deposit  their 
money  or  the  products  which  they  must  exchange 
for  what  they  buy,  into  the  Labor  Exchange  and 
get  certificates  of  deposit,  use  these  in  their 
trades,  and  when  they  wanted  to  draw  at  the 
commissary,  just  present  the  evidence  of  deposit 
and  get  at  retail  their  portion.  Or  suppose  men 
who  pay  out  $5  or  $10  per  month  for  groceries, 
etc.,  would  put  in  that  amount  in  advance  and 
get  the  evidence  of  deposit  with  which  to  trade 
among  each  other  and  draw  their  stock  as  they 
needed  it.  As  labor  produces  all  wealth,  the  lab- 
oring people  need  not  be  alarmed  if  they  will  only 
act  promptly  and  judiciously. 

The  valuable  points  in  the  Labor  Exchange 
are  many  and  varied.  We  would  sincerely  advise 
all  true  believers  in  co-operation  to  waste  no  time 
with  any  other  plan,  but  get  right  to  work  on  the 
system  we  can  prove  to  any  sane  human  is  the 
only  perfect  and  the  shortest  route  to  lasting  re- 
form. We  will  here  introduce  our  friends  to  a 
short  explanation  of 

THE  LABOR   EXCHANGE. 

This  is  a  Benevolent  Association,  organized  for 
the  purpose  of  employing  the  idle  men  and  women 
at  useful  labor  and  10  distribute  the  wealth  created 
equitably  among  the  producers  who  contribute  in 


24-  ™E    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

the  production  of  the  necessaries  and  luxuries  of 
civilized  life.  It  compels  no  one  to  do  anything 
but  offers  an  opportunity  to  all  desiring  work,  and 
rewards  toil  with  the  full  product  of  its  efforts. 
Issues  its  own  Certificates  of  Deposit  with  which 
the  products  of  labor  can  be  conveniently  ex- 
changed without  usury.  The  needy  are  provided 
for,  and  all  property  is  secured  against  losses  on 
the  most  just  principles.  It,  in  fact,  covers  every 
need,  provides  for  every  good  done  and  solves 
every  problem  in  practical  and  social  economic^. 

The  author  and  propounder  of  this  system, 
G.  B.  De  Bernardi,  has  spent  a  great  many  years 
in  research,  study  and  travel,  at  great  expense  and 
much  -sacrifice,  perfecting  this  simple  and  effect- 
ive plan.  And,  of  the  many  thinkers  and  writers 
on  economics  not  one  has  been  able  to  find  a 
flaw  in  its  construction  and  operations.  This  sys- 
tem is  being  practically  tried  (in  a  small  way)  by 
a  number  of  branches  in  several  states  already 
and  needs  only  to  be  understood  to  be  appreciat- 
ed by  every  wealth  producer.  It  consists  of  the 
Labor  Exchange,  as  is  chartered  under  the  state 
laws  of  Missouri,  with  branches  in  any  place 
where  a  number  of  members  will  organize  and^ 
adopt  the  plan.  A  few  can  begin,  and  at  oiKTeT 
and  do  very  effective  work. 

We  extract  the  following  from  ' 'Trials  and 
Triumph  of  Labor,"  which  may  aid  the  reader  to 
get  a  better  understanding  of  its  aims  and  ob- 
jects: 

"The  corporate  name  of  this  Association  shall 
be  the  'Labor  Exchange.' 

"OBJECT  OF  ASSOCIATION. 

"ist.  To  provide  employment  for  idle  labor, 
by  facilitating  the  interchange  of  commodities 
and  services  among  the  associates  and  the  public. 

"2d.  To  alleviate  the  suffering  incident  to, 
and  avert  the  social  dangers  which  may  arise 


OF    THE    LAIJOR    EXCHANGE.  25. 

from,  a  constantly  increasing  class  of  unem- 
ployed, by  furnishing  to  this  class  useful  occupa- 
tion, and  saving  the  wealth,  thus  produced,  for 
the  use  and  benefit  of  the  actual  producers  and 
their  dependents. 

"3rd.  To  lighten  the  burden  of  charitable 
institutions  by  establishing  one  self-sustaining. 

"By  and  through  such  employment  of  idle 
labor  as  aforesaid,  this  Association  aims  to  fur- 
nish food,  clothing  and  the  comforts  of  a  home 
to  those  thus  employed;  establish  depots  for  muj- 
ual  exchange,  operate  boarding  houses  for  the 
purpose,  and  also  provide  for  education,  the  ele- 
vation of  character  and  the  amenities  of  life  by 
maintaining  schools  and  other  places  of  instruc- 
tion. 

"MEMBERSHIP.  —  Any  person,  male  or  female, 
of  good  character,  not  addicted  to  intemperate  or 
immoral  habits,  who  is  willing  to  engage  in  a 
useful  occupation  or  calling,  or  to  aid  by  work  or 
means  to  advance  the  objects  herein  stated,  may 
become  a  member  of  this  Association,  and  be 
entitled  to  the  benefits  of  it,  under  such  rules  and 
regulations  as  may  be  established  by  the  same. 

"PROPERTY.  -  The  property  of  this  Associa- 
tion, real  and  personal,  shall  not,  under  any  cir- 
cumstances, be  mortgaged  or  pledged.  The  As- 
sociation shall  not  borrow  any  money,  and  shall 
not  issue  any  interest-bearing  note  or  obligation 
against  itself. 

"DISTRIBUTION  OF  REVENUES. — All  money  re- 
ceived for  the  sale  of  goods,  hire  of  labor  and 
other  property,  the  execution  of  contracts,  board 
of  hands,  entry  fees  to  places  of  amusement,  etc., 
shall  be  distributed  as  follows: 

"ist.      To  replenish  the  stock  of  goods  sold. 

"2nd.  To  keep  the  property  in  repair,  and  to 
restore  any  which  may  have  been  destroyed  by 
accident. 


26.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

t43rd.  To  defray  the  expenses  of  administra- 
tion economically  conducted. 

4t4th.  To  support  the  sick,  the  disabled  and 
assist  the  families  of  deceased  members. 

tfc5th.  To  maintain  schools,  especially  even- 
ing schools,  libraries  and  places  of  instruction 
and  amusement. 

k'6th.  To  extend  the  field  of  its  operations  by 
the  acquisition  of  additional  means  for  the  em- 
ployment of  idle  labor." 

THE    MEMBERSHIP    FEE 

Is  placed  at  $1.00  for  life,  no  matter  what  the  age 
of  the  applicant  may  be.  This  fee  is  necessary 
to  aid  in  paying  the  general  expenses  of  the  or- 
ganization work,  or  the  educational  part  of  the 
plan  could  not  be  carried  on.  The  one  dollar  for 
a  life-membership,  without  dues,  is  the  cheapest 
expense  money  we  ever  heard  of  for  starting  a 
beneficiary  association.  This  being  the  inaugu- 
ration of  the  greatest  and  grandest  beneficiary 
association  that  man  ever  thought  or  dreamed  of, 
why  not  push  the  work  and  teach  the  ignorant  at 
so  small  an  outlay.  Is  it  not  fair  that  a  pupil 
should  pay  a  dollar  for  knowledge  acquired  by 
forty  years  of  study  and  sacrifice  worth  more  than 
all  the  gold  of  creation  to  any  laborer  when  prop- 
erly applied?  Many  organizations  pay  not  only 
larger  fees  but  also  quarterly  or  yearly  dues  be- 
sides. 

The  Labor  Exchange,  with  but  $1.00  expense 
in  a  life-time,  promises  much  greater  and  more 
lasting  advantages  and  benefits  than  all  other  or- 
ganizations, societies,  associations,  lodges  or 
leagues,  secret  or  open,  political  parties,  com- 
munism, colonies,  insurance  and  loan  companies, 
stock  institutions  or  monopolistic  corporations  of 
any  kind,  even  if  they  all  combine  their  forces 
(farces). 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  27. 

The  teachers  must  eat  and  be  clothed;  even 
on  the  most  economical  plan  it  costs  something. 
The  printing,  paper,  postage  and  incidentals, 
writing,  lecturing  and  occasional  traveling,  lodg- 
ing, etc.,  too  numerous  a-nd  tedious  to  mention; 
organizers'  expenses,  the  propaganda  for  all  the 
general  work  and  other  necessaries  to  convert  the 
world  from  a  semi-barbarous  state  to  civilization 
and  an  ultimate  paradise,  must  be  met  by  those 
'who  can  raise  a  little  dollar.  The  movers 
must  stand  hundreds  and  even  thousands  of  times 
as  much  and  still  are  not  getting  leisure  enough  to 
take  a  peaceful  meal  nor  an  hour  of  pleasureable 
recreation  outside  of  duty.  They  draw  no  salary 
nor  idle  away  any  time  and  yet  there  seems  to 
be  a  hesitancy,  on  the  part  of  some  people,  to 
help  to  pay  the  mite  which  will  prove  the  greatest 
blessing  to  themselves. 

As  soon  as  the  fees  be  sufficient,  with  the  aid 
of  donations,  to  keep  the  general  work  from  suf- 
fering, Real  Estate  will  be  secured  in  a  business 
center  and  the  construction  of  a  Grand  Central 
Exchange  Temple  begun,  by  employing  the  idle, 
the  like  of  which  very  few  persons  can  conceive. 
In  this  Grand  Center  everv  member  will  be  a 
dollar  share-holder.  Instead  of  paying  rent  then 
we  will  be  able  to  draw  rent  from  the  outsiders 
who  will  naturally  want  to  do  business  in  the 
Center  (of  the  Earth  as  it  were),  and  the  dollar 
will  "grow." 

If  it  were  not  for  the  ignorance  of  the  masses 
and  their  determination  to  follow  and  nurse  their 
headstrong,  inbred,  bigoted  sophisms,  we  would 
not  need  one  dollar.  We  could  then  take  the  in- 
structions of  the  Labor  Exchange  principles,  go 
to  work  producing  wealth,  and  as  fast  as  products 
be  deposited,  the  certificates  would  be  issued  to  be 
made  use  of  for  exchange  or  trade  everywhere. 
But  because  of  stupidity  a  few  are  sacrificing  to 
make  the  necessary  trades  with  those  who  will  not 


28.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

take  anything  but  the  old  money.  Everyone  who 
aids  in  this  matter  can  reasonably  expect  to  be  re- 
warded many  fold  in  the  very  near  future.  For 
the  first  dollar  a  membership  certificate  is  issued, 
and  for  all  subsequent  deposits  the  deposit  certi 
ficates  are  issued  which  can  be  used  as  circulators 
from  point  to  point  among  members  and  others 
who  understand  the  plan.  There  is  no  risk  to 
run.  The  investment  is  all  profit.  Investigate 
and  be  convinced. 

A    MEMBER 

Is  any  person  of  good,  moral  character,  who  has. 
paid  the  fee,  filled  out  and  signed  the  obligation 
of  membership  with  witnesses  and  returned  the 
same 'to  the  general  office,  and  the  membership 
certificate  will  then  be  forth-coming  from  the 
Center.  It  matters  not  where  a  member  lives  or 
how  much  he  may  move  from  place  to  place  in 
any  clime.  County,  state  or  national  lines  cut  no 
figure  in  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Labor  Exchange 
operations. 

HOW    TO    START    AN    EXCHANGE. 

Get  together  seven  members  and  organize  by 
electing  proper  officers,  select  the  names  you  wis 
to  appear  upon   the  charter    and  send  them,  wit 
$2.50,  to  the  General  Office  and  secure  a  Charte 
with  Branch   number.       Proceed  at  once  to  selec 
the  proper   person  for  manager  whose    business  i 
will  be  to  take   charge  of  the  deposits,  issue  cer 
tificates,  make    exchanges,  cancel   retiring   certifi 
cates,  etc.      As  soon  as  your  number  arrives,  prin 
off   some  blank    Deposit    Certificates   of    variou 
denominations    to    make    convenient     exchanges. 
Secure  a  place  for  a  Depository  to  store  products. 
It  need  not  be  a  gro  ery,  but  simply  to  hold  in  se- 
curity the   goods    placed    in   the    care   of  the  so- 
ciety. 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  37. 

of  products  and  services.  The  price  of  products 
will  be  the  same  to  all  and  each  will  naturally 
drift  into  the  occupation  best  suited  to  taste  and 
ability. 

We  cannot  see  why  a  clerk  should  receive 
more  pay  than  a  farm  hand,  or  why  the  president 
of  a  railroad  system  should  cost  more  than  the 
locomotive  engineer.  We  think  that  when  the 
correct  adjustments  are  made  and  men  and  women 
are  given  an  equal  chance  to  promote  the  welfare 
of  themselves  and  others,  there  will  be  no  trouble 
in  rinding  the  proper  person  for  every  station. 
If  there  is  a  difference  in  mental  or  muscular 
power,  it  is  certainly  not  human  to  give  the  strong- 
er an  advantage  over  the  weaker.  Is  it  not 
enough  to  give  the  stronger  more  of  the  products 
if  they  by  exertions  produce  more  value?  As 
each  will  hold  Exchange  Deposit  Certificates  in 
accordance  to  the  wealth  he  has  created,  it  will 
give  the  industrious  an  opportunity  to  have  plenty 
of  everything  civilization  can  create. 

A  mechanic  is  more  essential  to  good  society 
than  a  president  is  to  a  nation,  yet  note  the  ab- 
surd difference  in  their  compensation.  The  farm- 
er is  the  foundation  upon  which  all  civilization 
rests  and  is  given  the  least  consideration  for  toil 
and  service.  Under  the  present  competitive  sys- 
tem the  most  worthy  are  being  crowded  down, 
while  the  worthless  arrogant  leeches  are  being 
exalted.  Destruction  is  rapidly  making  inroads 
and  ruin  is  inevitable  unless  the  co-operative 
principles  of  Labor  Exchange  are  speedily  intro- 
duced. 


38.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 


THE  ROOT  OF  ALL  EVIL. 

BY  M.    G.   WEAVER. 

One  morning,  after  a  stormy  night  at  sea,  ten 
men  found  themselves  on  a  desolate  island.  One 
was  lucky  enough  to  have  a  gun,  another  a  hatch 
et,  another  a  saw,  another  had  some  fishing 
tackle,  and  one  had  nothing  but  money,  a  useless 
article  on  an  island,  while  five  had  nothing  at  all. 

Knowing  the  prevailing  craze  for  gold,  the 
one  with  the  shiners,  called  Jack,  offered  each  of 
the  men  a  dollar  apiece  to  work  for  him  that  day. 
This  they  eagerly  accepted,  being  elated  to  strike 
a  job  the  first  day.  Three  were  put  to  erecting  a 
tent  of  poles  and  bark,  two  to  construct  a  table, 
bench,  etc.,  for  furniture,  one  to  hunt,  another  to 
fish,  one  to  hunt  for  fruits,  nuts  and  berries,  and 
the  remaining  one  to  prepare  a  dinner  of  the  sun- 
dry products.  Now  the  day  being  nearly  spent, 
all  were  tired  and  hungry.  When  the  table  was 
set,  Jack  said  to  the  workers,  "All  these  things 
have  I  ordered  and  paid  for,  no  one  can  dispute 
my  exclusive  right  of  possession;  now  I  propose 
to  give  you  all  a  square  meal  for  a  dollar  each." 
This  hunger  compelled  them  to  accept.  After 
the  meal,  Jack  said,  "Those  who  have  no  money 
for  lodging  can  not  stay  here  to  night."  All  si- 
lently departed  feeling  badly  cowed.  When  they 
had  located  themselves  for  the  night,  Sam  said, 
"Just  think  what  blockheads  we  have  been  to-day 
building  that  tent  and  doing  everything,  provid- 
ing a  lot  of  good  eatables  and  giving  it  nearly  all 
to  that  fat,  lazy  Jack  just  for  the  privilege  of 
handling  those  nine  dollars  a  few  minutes!' 
"No,"  said  another,  "we  are  not  to  blame,  Jack, 
the  greedy  plutocrat,  just  went  and  took  it."  "Yes, 
but  with  your  own  consent,"  replied  Sam.  "Well 
he  furnished  the  capital  for  the  enterprise  and  it 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  39. 

is  not  more  than  right  for  us  to  allow  him  some- 
thing for  interest."  "I'll  tell  you  where  we  missed 
it,"  retorted  Sam,  "we  worked  too  cheap.  Had 
we  received  two  dollars  each  it  would  have  been 
plenty  for  all  necessities  and  some  over."  "That's 
what  I  say.  The  labor  is  ours  and  we  have  a 
right  to  ask  any  price  for  it  we  like.  Let  us  or- 
ganize and  strike  for  two  dollars." 

All  agreed  to  do  so.  The  next  day,  Jack,  hav- 
ing enough  provisions  left  for  himself,  refused  to 
comply  with  the  terms  proposed,  the  nine  were 
laying  around  idle  and  hungry. 

ist  Voice.  "What  is  the  reason  we  have 
such  hard  times  to-day,  no  work,  no  food,  and  no 
shelter?" 

2d.  Voice.  "Overproduction  I  suppose, 
there  is  no  demand  for  anything." 

"No  demand!"  cried  Sam,  "don't  we  need 
anything." 

2d  Voice.  "Yes,  but  we  have  no  employ- 
ment, so  where  is  the  money  to  come  from  to  pay 
for  what  we  need?  Most  people  must  do  with 
but  little  when  the  market  is  overstocked.  The 
trouble  is,  we  worked  too  fast.  It  is  all  due  to 
the  labor-saving  machinery  we  used.  I  am  sure 
that  if  we  would  have  caught  the  fish  by  hand, 
cut  the  bark  with  our  teeth  or  a  sharp  stone, 
caught  the  rabbits  with  a  pointed  stick,  etc.,  we 
would  have  plenty  of  work  to-day." 

"No,"  replied  Sam,  "there  is  not  too  much 
produce,  but  it  is  not  justly  divided.  -  One  man  is 
over-stocked  and  nine  are  destitute.  Does  Jack 
alone  constitute  the  market,  independent  of  our 
demands?" 

Sam  went  to  Jack  for  his  opinion  on  the  ques- 
tion- 

"I  will  tell  you  how  it  is"  said  Jack,  you  see 
it  matters  not  how  great  the  demand  is,  if  you 
have  no  money,  it  don't  count  a  straw  in  the  mar- 
ket. Let  me  tell  you  that  your  present  trouble 


40.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

originated  in  extravagance?  You  wanted  to  live 
as  good  as  the  rich.  Men  in  your  circumstances 
must  economize  or  suffer  more." 

The  next  morning  Jack  offered  the  desired 
wages  and  all  went  to  work  with  light  hearts  and 
lighter  stomachs.  When,  by  co-operative  efforts, 
they  had  again  prepared  a  big  dinner,  Jack  told  them 
the  market  was  going  up  and  that  he  was  obliged 
to  have  $2.5  apiece  for  dinner.  But,  none  hav- 
ing enough,  they  wrangled  with  each  other  for 
money  until  at  last  seven  managed  to  pay;  the 
two  weakest  had  to  do  without.  But,  after  dinner, 
Jack  threw  a  few  bones  to  the  unfortunate  two 
beggars,  remarking,  that  he  felt  it  his  duty  to  be 
charitable  to  the  poor.  When  the  nine  had  again 
departed  to  seek  shelter  in  the  woods,  Sam  called 
them  together  and  addressed  them,  thusly: 

"We  have  been  fools  long  enough!  Let  us  be 
men,  and  make  a  change,  Experience  has  prov- 
en that,  if  we  surrender  our  labor  to  Jack  for  gold, 
we  are  entirely  at  his  mercy  and  we  get  back  the 
scantiest  necessities  of  life.  We  had  organized  to 
have  our  wages  raised  and  the  price  of  our  neces- 
sities went  up  even  faster  than  the  wages.  This 
wage  system  is  all  wrong,  and  we  don't  have  any 
use  for  the  consumers  of  our  product  if  they  will 
not  do  anything  for  us.  Now  let  us  organize  a  La- 
bor Exchange  and  only  sell  our  labor  for  equal  toil 
and  not  cheat  ourselves  by  accepting  that  soft 
glittering,  almost  worthless,  metal,  which  neither 
feeds,  warms  nor  shelters.  If  we  had  worked  for 
ourselves  from  the  beginning,  instead  of  working 
for  gold,  we  would  all  be  well  fixed  to-day.  Let 
Jack  alone,  and  we  will  see  if  he  can  catch  fish 
with  his  stuff  as  easily  as  he  has  duped  us.  We  can 
make  our  own  checks  to  keep  account  of  deposit 
and  facilitate  trade— out  of  paper — and  exchange 
on  equal  basis,  in  any  civilized  country." 

Early  the  next  morning  everything  was  in  a 
bustle.  Three  new  huts  were  started  and  every- 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  41. 

body  worked  with  unusual  Zealand  energy.  When 
Jack  came  to  hire  them — offering  as  high  as  fifty 
dollars  each  for  a  day's  work — no  one  paid  any 
attention  to  him.  Seeing  he  could  not  get  their 
services  in  that  way,  he  took  Sam  aside  and 
offered  to  loan  him  all  his  money  to  carry  on  the 
enterprise  in  hand  if  he  would  allow  him  to  share 
at  their  table  and  of  their  products  for  interest, 
because  of  the  "capital"  invested. 

"No!"  said  Sam.  "No  one  would  work  for 
it  now.  None  want  it.  As  an  exchange  medium 
we  can  take  less  expensive  material,  of  our  own 
make,  thus  saving  the  interest  and  much  unneces- 
sary work.  If  you  want  to  share  our  wealth  you 
must  also  share  our  toil.  For  labor  only  will  we 
yield  our  labor  and  its  products,  and  on  no  other 
condition." 

Jack  laid  his  heavy  purse  aside,  as  a  relic  of 
past  iniquities,  and  went  to  work  like  an  honest 
man,  doing  his  share  for  the  privilege  of  eating 
along  at  the  table  and  sharing  the  wealth  created 
by  labor. 

*  Since  the  tables  are  turned,  improvements 
are  swelling  rapidly,  and  there  are  no  morestrikes, 
over-production,  loafing,  panics,  tramps,  land- 
lordism, spurious  laws,  unequal  taxation,  toadyism, 
superstitions  nor  inequalities  to  be  heard  of  ex- 
cept in  the  past  history  of  half-civilized  countries. 

Moral:  Join  the  Labor  Exchange  and  enjoy 
its  benefits. 


HARD  TIMES  AND  HOW  TO  EASE  THEM. 

BY    M.    G.   WEAVER. 

Not  long  since  we  enumerated  the  unem- 
ployed of  our  borough  and  found  nearly  five 
hundred  in  need  of  work.  Most  of  these  had 
families  depending  on  them,  with  their  supplies, 
and  their  landlord's  patience,  almost  exhausted. 


42.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

As  the  weather  was  damp  and  chilly  the  scant  sup- 
ply of  coal  was  soon  consumed.  Pitiful  reports 
were  heard  daily,  and  our  sympathies  for  human- 
ity anxiously  longed  for  speedy  relief.  • 

We  laid  the  facts  before  one  of  our  most 
wealthy  capicalists  and  plead  with  him  to  estab- 
lish some  enterprise  for  the  employment  of  our 
idle,  but  to  no  effect.  He  said,  "With  the  present 
markets  the  profits  would  be  too  small  to  justify 
the  undertaking,"  and  that  he  could  do  better  by 
waiting  six  months  longer,  expecting  by  that  time 
to  get  ten  hours  toil  for  25cts.  Seeing  this  class 
of  people  were  bound  to  have  their  "thirty  pieces 
of  silver"  at  any  cost,  we  turned  to  our  magistrate, 
who  said  he  could  raise  no  money  in  any  way  to  help 
our  poor,  that  our  best  people  are  continually 
protesting  against  high  taxes  and  that  his  only 
hope  for  re-election  rested  on  keeping  them  down 
to  the  lowest  possible  notch. 

Therefore,  not  wishing  our  population  to  be 
compelled  to  migrate  to  the  County  Alms  House, 
we  resolved  to  make  a  persistent  effort  to  collect 
a  little  cash  from  our  best(?)  men  to  establish, 
on  a  small  scale,  some  enterprise  to  employ  the 
idle.  We  succeeded  in  getting  a  little  towards 
relieving  their  most  pressing  needs,  but  towards 
our  project  we  could  not  get  a  dollar. 

One  night,  while  pondering  upon  the  urgent 
needs  of  the  people,  it  occured  to  me  that,  per- 
haps we  would  better  go  for  aid  to  the  very  peo- 
ple who  are  the  most  interested  in  the  project  — 
the  unemployed.  After  a  few  days  deliberatior 
we  matured  a  plan,  and  in  the  following  Sunday 
morning's  papers  appeared  a  call  for  all  those 
who  want  work  to  assemble  in  the  Town  Hall  ir 
the  evening  at  seven  o'clock.  Over  five  hundrec 
responded,  with  anxious  faces  and  different  ideas 
as  to  what  was  going  to  be  done  with  them.  We 
told  them  that  as  soon  as  we  could  raise  sufficient 
capital  they  should  all  have  plenty  of  work,  that 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  43. 

we  had  asked  the  capitalists  for  money  for  this 
purpose,  but  as  they  are  not  in  need  of  employ- 
ment themselves,  they  seemed  to  care  very  little 
about  others.  We  therefore  have  called  together 
those  directly  interested,  the  idle  laborers  them- 
selves, to  see  if  we  could  not  get  it  from  you. 
As  time  is  money  and  you  have  lots  of  time  at 
your  disposal,  at  least  at  present,  and  already 
wasted  many  thousand  dollars  worth  in  loafing; 
we  propose  to  borrow  from  every  one,  all  the  time 
and  energy  you  can  spare,  to  invest  in  various 
manufacturing  enterprises  for  your  mutual  benefit. 
We  mean  that  you  shall  put  in  your  work,  and 
take  Deposit  Certificates  for  pay  till  you  get  a 
start;  and  finally  you  shall  have  the  value  of  a 
dollar  for  every  day  you  work  and  be  the  own- 
ers of  all  the  „  factories  and  products  besides. 
There  is  a  glorious  future  before  you  if  you  will 
but  work  for  Time  Deposite  .Certificates  a  little 
while  until  we  get  started.  How  many  are  willing 
to  utilize  your  spare  time  to  better  your  own  and 
your  fellow- workers'  conditions?  There  were  mur- 
mers  of  dissatisfaction  among  the  ignorant;  who 
wanted  the  "Ready  John,"  the  "Chink"  and 
would  rather  loaf  than  work  for  nothing.  They 
thought  they  would  starve  long  before  they  could 
own  a  factory;  that  we  just  wanted  to  speculate 
on  their  labor  for  personal  profit,  etc.  They  did 
not  believe  in  labor,  but  based  all  their  trust  on 
the  "Almighty  Dollar."  Others  argued,  that  as 
they  had  no  work  they  might  as  well  lend  a  hand 
and  give  the  thing  a  trial,  as  to  throw  away  their 
time  altogether.  Those  more  brave  than  the  rest 
said,  "We  will  always  labor  for  this  grand  cause 
and  become  our  own  employers  and  as  long  as  we 
can  keep  body  and  soul  together  we  will  not  work 
a  stroke  to  swell  the  purse  of  the  millionaire." 

Finally  about  three  hundred  declared  them- 
selves willing  to  combine  efforts  for  mutual  bene- 
fits. The  vote  of  these  people,  for  business  man- 


44-  THK    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

ager,  fell  on  me.  Being  winter  it  was  hard  to  get 
a  start,  as  materials  were  scarce,  but  next  Monday 
morning  we  sent  ten  men  to  each  of  five  farmer's 
near  by,  to  pick  corn-husks  for  mats;  instructing 
them  to  ask  for  credit  until  the  rugs  were  made. 
Before  night  each  of  the  fifty  men  brought  in  a 
great  bundle  of  husks.  Some  farmers  would  not 
take  anything,  others  wanted  a  few  mats,  and  all 
were  willing  to  wait  for  pay  or  take  deposit  re- 
ceipts. The  husks  were  soon  distributed  among 
the  idle  willing  hands  and  in  two  days  it  was 
worked  into  six  hundred  neat,  useful,  square  and 
oval  door  mats,  which  we  shipped  to  the  city 
without  delay.  Then  because  nothing  more  could 
be  done  that  week,  we  devoted  our  time  to  the 
educational  department,  laying  plans  for  further 
work  and  by  Saturday  evening  the  returns  arrived. 
The  mats  were  worth  at  least  $60  wholesale,  but 
owing  to  the  forced  sale  we  only  realized  $28  clear 
of  all  expenses.  Thus  we  earned  the  first  week 
nine  cents  each  on  an  average.  This  was  a  poor 
show  for  a  beginning  but  it  was  done  without  a 
cent  of  capital.  Now  that  we  had  a  little  cash 
for  material  we  made  a  better  showing  for  the 
next  week. 

On  Monday  morning  I  hired  a  team  and  sent 
two  men  for   a  load  of  clay,  and  when  they  car 
back,   I  sent    three    others    to    the  mountain  fc 
wood,  such  as  used  in  making  rustic  seats,  chairs 
flower   stands,    etc.       I  got   some    boards,    nails 
varnish  and  other  necessaries,  all  costing  $8.     As 
soon  as  the  first  load  of  laurel  arrived  I  put  a  hal 
dozen  carpenters  to  work  making  rustic  furniture 
With  the  remaining  $20  we  bought  several  barrels 
of  plaster  paris  and  invested  the  balance  in  basket 
willows.    Now  we  were  about  prepared  to  give  al 
steady  work.     As  soon  as  the  clay  was  dried  anc 
sifted,  it  was  distributed  among  the  women  anc 
the  artistically  inclined,  and  each  was  requested 
to  make  one  or  more  original  models  of  ornaments. 


£ 

els 
:et 

i 

id 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  37. 

of  products  and  services.  The  price  of  products 
will  be  the  same  to  all  and  each  will  naturally 
drift  into  the  occupation  best  suited  to  taste  and 
ability. 

We  cannot  see  why  a  clerk  should  receive 
more  pay  than  a  farm  hand,  or  why  the  president 
of  a  railroad  system  should  cost  more  than  the 
locomotive  engineer.  We  think  that  when  the 
correct  adjustments  are  made  and  men  and  women 
are  given  an  equal  chance  to  promote  the  welfare 
of  themselves  and  others,  there  will  be  no  trouble 
in  finding  the  proper  person  for  every  station. 
If  there  is  a  difference  in  mental  or  muscular 
power,  it  is  certainly  not  human  to  give  the  strong- 
er an  advantage  over  the  weaker.  Is  it  not 
enough  to  give  the  stronger  more  of  the  products 
if  they  by  exertions  produce  more  value?  As 
each  will  hold  Exchange  Deposit  Certificates  in 
accordance  to  the  wealth  he  has  created,  it  will 
give  the  industrious  an  opportunity  to  have  plenty 
of  everything  civilization  can  create. 

A  mechanic  is  more  essential  to  good  society 
than  a  president  is  to  a  nation,  yet  note  the  ab- 
surd difference  in  their  compensation.  The  farm- 
er is  the  foundation  upon  which  all  civilization 
rests  and  is  given  the  least  consideration  for  toil 
and  service.  Under  the  present  competitive  sys- 
tem the  most  worthy  are  being  crowded  down, 
while  the  worthless  arrogant  leeches  are  being 
exalted  Destruction  is  rapidly  making  inroads 
and  ruin  is  inevitable  unless  the  co-operative 
principles  of  Labor  Exchange  are  speedily  intro- 
duced. 


38.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 


THE  ROOT  OF  ALL  EVIL. 

BY  M.    G.   WEAVER. 

One  morning,  after  a  stormy  night  at  sea,  ten 
men  found  themselves  on  a  desolate  island.  One 
was  lucky  enough  to  have  a  gun,  another  a  hatch 
et,  another  a  saw,  another  had  some  fishing 
tackle,  and  one  had  nothing  but  money,  a  useless 
article  on  an  island,  while  five  had  nothing  at  all. 

Knowing  the  prevailing  craze  for  gold,  the 
one  with  the  shiners,  called  Jack,  offered  each  of 
the  men  a  dollar  apiece  to  work  for  him  that  day. 
This  they  eagerly  accepted,  being  elated  to  strike 
a  job  the  first  day.  Three  were  put  to  erecting  a 
tent  of  poles  and  bark,  two  to  construct  a  table, 
bench,  etc.,  for  furniture,  one  to  hunt,  another  to 
fish,  one  to  hunt  for  fruits,  nuts  and  berries,  and 
the  remaining  one  to  prepare  a  dinner  of  the  sun- 
dry products.  Now  the  day  being  nearly  spent, 
all  were  tired  and  hungry.  When  the  table  was 
set,  Jack  said  to  the  workers,  "All  these  things 
have  I  ordered  and  paid  for,  no  one  can  dispute 
my  exclusive  right  of  possession;  now  I  propose 
to  give  you  all  a  square  meal  for  a  dollar  each." 
This  hunger  compelled  them  to  accept.  After 
the  meal,  Jack  said,  "Those  who  have  no  money 
for  lodging  can  not  stay  here  to  night."  All  si- 
lently departed  feeling  badly  cowed.  When  the) 
had  located  themselves  for  the  night,  Sam  said, 
"Just  think  what  blockheads  we  have  been  to-day 
building  that  tent  and  doing  everything,  provid- 
ing a  lot  of  good  eatables  and  giving  it  nearly  all 
to  that  fat,  lazy  Jack  just  for  the  privilege  of 
handling  those  nine  dollars  a  few  minutes!" 
4 'No,"  said  another,  "we  are  not  to  blame,  Jack, 
the  greedy  plutocrat,  just  went  and  took  it."  "Yes, 
but  with  your  own  consent,"  replied  Sam.  "Well 
he  furnished  the  capital  for  the  enterprise  and  it 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  39. 

is  not  more  than  right  for  us  to  allow  him  some- 
thing for  interest."  "I'll  tell  you  where  we  missed 
it,"  retorted  Sam,  "we  worked  too  cheap.  Had 
we  received  two  dollars  each  it  would  have  been 
plenty  for  all  necessities  and  some  over/'  "That's 
what  I  say.  The  labor  is  ours  and  we  have  a 
right  to  ask  any  price  for  it  we  like.  Let  us  or- 
ganize and  strike  for  two  dollars." 

All  agreed  to  do  so.  The  next  day,  Jack,  hav- 
ing enough  provisions  left  for  himself,  refused  to 
comply  with  the  terms  proposed,  the  nine  were 
laying  around  idle  and  hungry. 

ist  Voice.  "What  is  the  reason  we  have 
such  hard  times  to-day,  no  work,  no  food,  and  no 
shelter?" 

2d.  Voice.  "Overproduction  I  suppose, 
there  is  no  demand  for  anything." 

"No  demand!"  cried  Sam,  "don't  we  need 
anything." 

2d  Voice.  "Yes,  but  we  have  no  employ- 
ment, so  where  is  the  money  to  come  from  to  pay 
for  what  we  need?  Most  people  must  do  with 
but  little  when  the  market  is  overstocked.  The 
trouble  is,  we  worked  too  fast.  It  is  all  due  to 
the  labor-saving  machinery  we  used.  I  am  sure 
that  if  we  would  have  caught  the  fish  by  hand, 
cut  the  bark  with  our  teeth  or  a  sharp  stone, 
caught  the  rabbits  with  a  pointed  stick,  etc.,  we 
would  have  plenty  of  work  to  day." 

"No,"  replied  Sam,  "there  is  not  too  much 
produce,  but  it  is  not  justly  divided.  One  man  is 
over-stocked  and  nine  are  destitute.  Does  Jack 
alone  constitute  the  market,  independent  of  our 
demands?" 

Sam  went  to  Jack  for  his  opinion  on  the  ques- 
tion- 

"I  will  tell  you  how  it  is"  said  Jack,  you  see 
it  matters  not  how  great  the  demand  is,  if  you 
have  no  money,  it  don't  count  a  straw  in  the  mar- 
ket. Let  me  tell  you  that  your  present  trouble 


40.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

originated  in  extravagance?  You  wanted  to  live 
as  good  as  the  rich.  Men  in  your  circumstances 
must  economize  or  suffer  more." 

The  next  morning  Jack  offered  the  desired 
wages  and  all  went  to  work  with  light  hearts  and 
lighter  stomachs.  When,  by  co-operative  efforts, 
they  had  again  prepared  a  big  dinner,  Jack  told  them 
the  market  was  going  up  and  that  he  was  obliged 
to  have  $2.50  apiece  for  dinner.  But,  none  hav- 
ing enough,  they  wrangled  with  each  other  for 
money  until  at  last  seven  managed  to  pay;  the 
two  weakest  had  to  do  without.  But,  after  dinner. 
Jack  threw  a  few  bones  to  the  unfortunate  two 
beggars,  remarking,  that  he  felt  it  his  duty  to  be 
charitable  to  the  poor.  When  the  nine  had  again 
departed  to  seek  shelter  in  the  woods,  Sam  called 
them  together  and  addressed  them,  thusly: 

"We  have  been  fools  long  enough!  Let  us  be 
men,  and  make  a  change,  Experience  has  prov- 
en that,  if  we  surrender  our  labor  to  Jack  for  gold, 
we  are  entirely  at  his  mercy  and  we  get  back  the 
scantiest  necessities  of  life.  We  had  organized  to 
have  our  wages  raised  and  the  price  of  our  neces- 
sities went  up  even  faster  than  the  wages.  This 
wage  system  is  all  wrong,  and  we  don't  have  any 
use  for  the  consumers  of  our  product  if  they  will 
not  do  any  thing  for  us.  Now  let  us  organize  a  La- 
bor Exchange  and  only  sell  our  labor  for  equal  toil 
and  not  cheat  ourselves  by  accepting  that  soft 
glittering,  almost  worthless,  metal,  which  neither 
feeds,  warms  nor  shelters.  If  we  had  worked  for 
ourselves  from  the  beginning,  instead  of  working 
for  gold,  we  would  all  be  well  fixed  to-day.  Let 
Jack  alone,  and  we  will  see  if  he  can  catch  fisr 
with  his  stuff  as  easily  as  he  has  duped  us.  We  car 
make  our  own  checks  to  keep  account  of  deposit 
and  facilitate  trade— out  of  paper — and  exchange 
on  equal  basis,  in  any  civilized  country." 

Early  the  next  morning    everything  was  in 
bustle.     Three  new  huts  were  started  and  every- 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  41. 

body  worked  with  unusual  zeal  and  energy.  When 
Jack  came  to  hire  them — offering  as  high  as  fifty 
dollars  each  for  a  day's  work — no  one  paid  any 
attention  to  him.  Seeing  he  could  not  get  then- 
services  in  that  way,  he  took.  Sam  aside  and 
offered  to  loan  him  all  his  money  to  carry  on  the 
enterprise  in  hand  if  he  would  allow  him  to  share 
at  their  table  and  of  their  products  for  interest, 
because  of  the  "capital"  invested. 

"No!"  said  Sam.  "No  one  would  work  for 
it  now.  None  want  it.  As  an  exchange  medium 
we  can  take  less  expensive  material,  of  our  own 
make,  thus  saving  the  interest  and  much  unneces- 
sary work.  If  you  want  to  share  our  wealth  you 
must  also  share  our  toil.  For  labor  only  will  we 
yield  our  labor  and  its  products,  and  on  no  other 
condition." 

Jack  laid  his  heavy  purse  aside,  as  a  relic  of 
past  iniquities,  and  went  to  work  like  an  honest 
man,  doing  his  share  for  the  privilege  of  eating 
along  at  the  table  and  sharing  the  wealth  created 
by  labor. 

Since  the  tables  are  turned,  improvements 
are  swelling  rapidly,  and  there  are  no  morestrikes, 
over-production,  loafing,  panics,  tramps,  land- 
lordism, spurious  laws,  unequal  taxation,  toadyism, 
superstitions  nor  inequalities  to  be  heard  of  ex- 
cept in  the  past  history  of  half-civilized  countries. 

Moral:  Join  the  Labor  Exchange  and  enjoy 
its  benefits. 


HARD  TIMES  AND  HOW  TO  EASE  THEM. 

BY    M.    G.   WEAVER. 

Not  long  since  we  enumerated  the  unem- 
ployed of  our  borough  and  found  nearly  five 
hundred  in  need  of  work.  Most  of  these  had 
families  depending  on  them,  with  their  supplies, 
and  their  landlord's  patience,  almost  exhausted. 


42.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

As  the  weather  was  damp  and  chilly  the  scant  sup- 
ply of  coal  was  soon  consumed.  Pitiful  reports 
were  heard  daily,  and  our  sympathies  for  human- 
ity anxiously  longed  for  speedy  relief. 

We  laid  the  facts  before  one  of  our  most 
wealthy  capitalists  and  plead  with  him  to  estab- 
lish some  enterprise  for  the  employment  of  our 
idle,  but  to  no  effect.  He  said,  "With  the  present 
markets  the  profits  would  be  too  small  to  justify 
the  undertaking,"  and  that  he  could  do  better  by 
waiting  six  months  longer,  expecting  by  that  time 
to  get  ten  hours  toil  for  25cts.  Seeing  this  class 
of  people  were  bound  to  have  their  "thirty  pieces 
of  silver"  at  any  cost,  we  turned  to  our  magistrate, 
who  said  he  could  raise  no  money  in  any  way  to  help 
our  poor,  that  our  best  people  are  continually 
protesting  against  high  taxes  and  that  his  only 
hope  for  re-election  rested  on  keeping  them  down 
to  the  lowest  possible  notch. 

Therefore,  not  wishing  our  population  to  be 
compelled  to  migrate  to  the  County  Alms  House, 
we  resolved  to  make  a  persistent  effort  to  collect 
a  little  cash  from  our  best(?)  men  to  establish, 
on  a  small  scale,  some  enterprise  to  employ  the 
idle.  We  succeeded  in  getting  a  little  towards 
relieving  their  most  pressing  needs,  but  towards 
our  project  we  could  not  get  a  dollar. 

One  night,  while  pondering  upon  the  urgent 
needs  of  the  people,  it  occured  to  me  that,  per- 
haps we  would  better  go  for  aid  to  the  very  peo- 
ple who  are  the  most  interested  in  the  project  — 
the  unemployed.  After  a  few  days  deliberation 
we  matured  a  plan,  and  in  the  following  Sunday 
morning's  papers  appeared  a  call  for  all  those 
who  want  work  to  assemble  in  the  Town  Hall  in 
the  evening  at  seven  o'clock.  Over  five  hundred 
responded,  with  anxious  faces  and  different  ideas 
as  to  what  was  going  to  be  done  with  them.  We 
told  them  that  as  soon  as  we  could  raise  sufficient 
capital  they  should  all  have  plenty  of  work,  tha 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  43. 

we  had  asked  the  capitalists  for  money  for  this 
purpose,  but  as  they  are  not  in  need  of  employ- 
ment themselves,  they  seemed  to  care  very  little 
about  others.  We  therefore  have  called  together 
those  directly  interested,  the  idle  laborers  them- 
selves, to  see  if  we  could  not  get  it  from  you. 
As  time  is  money  and  you  have  lots  of  time  at 
your  disposal,  at  least  at  present,  and  already 
wasted  many  thousand  dollars  worth  in  loafing; 
we  propose  to  borrow  from  every  one,  all  the  time 
and  energy  you  can  spare,  to  invest  in  various 
manufacturing  enterprises  for  your  mutual  benefit. 
We  mean  that  you  shall  put  in  your  work,  and 
take  Deposit  Certificates  for  pay  till  you  get  a 
start;  and  filially  you  shall  have  the  value  of  a 
dollar  for  every  day  you  work  and  be  the  own- 
ers of  all  the  factories  and  products  besides. 
There  is  a  glorious  future  before  you  if  you  will 
but  work  for  Time  Deposite  Certificates  a  little 
while  until  we  get  started.  How  many  are  willing 
to  utilize  your  spare  time  to  better  your  own  and 
your  fellow- workers'  conditions?  There  were  mur- 
mers  of  dissatisfaction  among  the  ignorant;  who 
wanted  the  "Ready  John,"  the  "Chink"  and 
would  rather  loaf  than  work  for  nothing.  They 
thought  they  would  starve  long  before  they  could 
own  a  factory;  that  we  just  wanted  to  speculate 
on  their  labor  for  personal  profit,  etc.  They  dltl 
not  believe  in  labor,  but  based  all  their  trust  on 
the  "Almighty  Dollar."  Others  argued,  that  as 
they  had  no  work  they  might  as  well  lend  a  hand 
and  give  the  thing  a  trial,  as  to  throw  away  their 
time  altogether.  Those  more  brave  than  the  rest 
said,  "We  will  always  labor  for  this  grand  cause 
and  become  our  own  employers  and  as  long  as  we 
can  keep  body  and  soul  together  we  will  not  work 
a  stroke  to  swell  the  purse  of  the  millionaire." 

Finally  about  three  hundred  declared  them- 
selves willing  to  combine  efforts  for  mutual  bene- 
fits. The  vote  of  these  people,  for  business  man- 


44-  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

ager,  fell  on  me.  Being  winter  it  was  hard  to  get 
a  start,  as  materials  were  scarce,  but  next  Monday 
morning  we  sent  ten  men  to  each  of  five  farmer's 
near  by,  to  pick  corn-husks  for  mats;  instructing 
them  to  ask  for  credit  until  the  rugs  were  made. 
Before  night  each  of  the  fifty  men  brought  in  a 
great  bundle  of  husks.  Some  farmers  would  not 
take  anything,  others  wanted  a  few  mats,  and  all 
were  willing  to  wait  for  pay  or  take  deposit  re- 
ceipts. The  husks  were  soon  distributed  among 
the  idle  willing  hands  and  in  two  days  it  was 
worked  into  six  hundred  neat,  useful,  square  and 
oval  door  mats,  which  we  shipped  to  the'  city 
without  delay.  Then  because  nothing  more  could 
be  done  that  week,  we  devoted  our  time  to  the 
educational  department,  laying  plans  for  further 
work  and  by  Saturday  evening  the  returns  arrived. 
The  mats  were  worth  at  least  $60  wholesale,  but 
owing  to  the  forced  sale  we  only  realized  $28  clear 
of  all  expenses.  Thus  we  earned  the  first  week 
nine  cents  each  on  an  average.  This  was  a  poor 
show  for  a  beginning  but  it  was  done  without  a 
cent  of  capital.  Now  that  we  had  a  little  cash 
for  material  we  made  a  better  showing  for  the 
next  week. 

On  Monday  morning  I  hired  a  team  and  sent 
two  men  for  a  load  of  clay,  and  when  they  came 
back,  I  sent  three  others  to  the  mountain  for 
wood,  such  as  used  in  making  rustic  seats,  chairs, 
flower  stands,  etc.  I  got  some  boards,  nails, 
varnish  and  other  necessaries,  all  costing  $8.  As 
soon  as  the  first  load  of  laurel  arrived  I  put  a  half 
dozen  carpenters  to  work  making  rustic  furniture. 
With  the  remaining  $20  we  bought  several  barrels 
of  plaster  paris  and  invested  the  balance  in  basket 
willows.  Now  we  were  about  prepared  to  give  all 
steady  work.  As  soon  as  the  clay  was  dried  and 
sifted,  it  was  distributed  among  the  women  and 
the  artistically  inclined,  and  each  was  requeste 
to  make  one  or  more  original  models  of  ornament 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  45. 

From  nearly  a  hundred  odd  and  -curious  models 
we  selected  a  dozen  patterns  of  real  merit  and 
cast  them  in  plaster.  Some  of  the  women  and 
children  helped  to  make  baskets  and  fancy  work, 
of  a  useful  variety,  such  as  took  considerable 
skill  with  but  slight  expense.  We  stationed  our 
best  salesman  at  Chicago,  to  dispose  of  them  to 
the"  highest  bidder.  As  fast  as  returns  came  in 
we  invested  in  such  materials^  tools.,  etc.,  as  would 
pay  better  profits.  So  we  did  not  ;stay  long  on 
the  lower  round  of  the  ladder. 

The  third  week,;  I  invested  $200  in  dry-goods 
and  employed  some  of  the  women  making  shirts, 
over-alls,  dresses,  etc.,  which  many  of  us  need- 
ed very  much.  One  member,  a  shdem&kdr,  was 
furnished  with  material  to  make  us  substantial 
foot-wear.  At  the  end  of  the-  first  month  we 
had  made  and  sold  nearly  J^ooo  worth  of  goods, 
an  average  of  only  $10  each.  This  was  uphill 
work,  bat  it  gave  us  a  leverage  for  the  next 
month's  operations. 

The  way  we  keep  accounts  deserves ,  atten* 
lion.  To  every  'one  who  contributed  a  day's 
work,  or  the  value  thereof,  to  the  general  stock, 
I  issued,  by  authority  to  me  granted*  a  Certificate 
of  Deposit  ;fdr  one  dollar's  worth  of  product  which 
could  be  drawn  from  the  gerieraLstock  if  desired, 
and  those  who  got  clothes,  shoes  or  any  other 
product  of  labor,  or  service,  had;  to  .return  for 
cancellation  enough  of;  their  ^checks"  to  cover 
the  market  value  6f  what  they1  'received;,  Thus 
at  all  times  the  amount  of  receipts  in  any  mem- 
bet's  hands  shows  just  how  much-he  is  entitled 
to  get  for  his  deposit  of  toil  or  value.  'These  cer- 
tificates are  made  personal  drafts  to  the  producer 
against  the  combined  stock  in  trade,  and  enables 
members  to  negotiate  among  themselves  as  an  ex* 
change  in  any  transactions,  by  proper!  endorse- 
ment; and  because  of  the  stubs  remaining  in  my 
care  a  record  is  kept  -of  the  relative  ownership  of 


46.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

the  balance  remaining  in  the  general  fund.  Out- 
siders take  them  because  they  are  good  for  so  much 
product. 

The  second  month  we  realized  out  of  labor 
$6,000,  being  an  average  of  nearly  $20  each. 
"Then  we  bought  eighty  acres  of  land  for  $8,000 
as  a  truck  and  chicken  farm  to  help  supply  the 
members  with  the  necessaries  of  life.  We  put  ten 
men  to  farming  it,  and  gave  any  member  privilege 
to  buy  products  needed,  when  for  sale,  in  ex- 
change for  "checks"  at  market  price.  This  farm 
now  belongs  to  all  the  members  in  the  propor- 
tion that  each  helped  to  pay  for  it  by  work  or 
deposits. 

Most  of  the  outsiders,  seeing  the  members 
hold  clear  title  to  real  estate,  now  take  the  labor 
certificates  as  pay  for  rent,  store  bills,  etc.,  and 
make  profits  of  trade  they  should  miss  if  they 
would  not  take  them,  and  in  another  month, 
when  we  had  bought  a  brick  making  plant  for 
$7,000,  our  certificates  were  handled  freely  and 
circulated  in  the  borough  above  par,  in  many 
cases,  because  they  were  based  on  the  best  secur- 
ity in  the  world — the  products  of  honest  labor. 
The  members  are  now  on  good  footing;  they  have 
a  dollar  for  every  day  they  worked,  even  at  the 
mats,  and  are  the  joint  owners  of  over  $15,000 
worth  of  property.  This  wonderful  triumph  of 
labor  took  our  town  by  surprise.  The  "lower 
classes"  are  now  on  the  road  to  rapidly  become 
the  "upper"  and  lots  of  outsiders  are  leaving  their 
jobs,  of  stuffing  the  idle,  to  join  us 

In  many  places,  throughout  the  country,  the 
laborers  hearing  of  our  grand  victory  started  on 
the  same  plan,  and  members   are  enrolled  fror 
every  trade  and  profession.      We  no  longer  nee 
to  sell  our  goods  at  a  sacrifice,  to   Chicago  spec 
ulators,    but    can   exchange  with    other   branche 
with  a  great  saving  of  labor,  rents,  speculations 
usury,  taxation  and  other  robberies,  which  unnec 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  47. 

essary  expenses  have  dwarfed  civilization  in  the 
past. 

In  six  months  our  membership  had  trebled 
and  the  real  estate  exceeded  $5o,oco,  besides  a  lot 
of  brick  houses  just  started  in  which  we  propose 
to  place  all  the  latest  improvements  for  health 
and  convenience  that  labor  can  produce  by  the 
application  of  mind  and  muscle.  Such  are  the  re- 
-sults  from  the  willingness  of  a  few  noble  men  and 
women  to  work  on  an  equitable  principle  for  the 
benefit  of  themselves  and  humanity,  rather  than 
to  waste  their  time  in  idleness  and  grumbling. 
Regarding  my  pay,  as  some  would  like  to  know 
where  I  got  it,  I  will  state  that  my  toil  as  a  suc- 
cessrul  manager  was  considered  equal  to  a  regular 
workman  and  for  every  day  I  faithfully  applied 
myself  to  the  business,  I  was  also  allowed  a  deposit 
certificate,  the  same  as  any  other  member  who 
was  daily  and  regularly  employed,  therefore  we 
are  equal  share  holders  if  we  put  in  the  same 
amount  of  toil  although  it  may  be  classed  as  a 
different  kind  of  work.  We  permit  all  members 
to  perform  such  labor  as  best  suits  their  taste  and 
ability  and  reward  them  in  accord  to  the  value  of 
their  productions. 

I  remain  most  faithfully  and  fraternally  yours 
for  the  Labor  Exchange. 


SOURCE  OF  MONEY. 

If  a  clock  was  out  of  order  and  we  were  to 
apply  to  the  king  to  issue  more  wheels  or  springs 
and  cast  them  at  random  into  the  clock,  or  hand 
them  to  a  speculator  to  throw  them  in  for  person- 
al profit,  it  would  be  as  rational  and  as  effective  as 
to  call  upon  the  government  to  adjust  the  finan- 
cial clock  by  issuing  some  additional  legal  tender 
paper  money  and  filtering  it  into  commerce 
through  the  banks,  or  sub-treasuries.  Turn  the 


48.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

question  on  all  sides,  ponder  upon  is  as  we  may, 
we  can  not  avoid  the  conclusion  that  the  issue  of 
money  by  the  government  is  the  most  illogical, 
the  most  inappropriate  and  most  bungling  piece 
of  business  imaginable.  It  has  hot  the  remotest 
analogy  w  th  the  object  in  view.  In  the  machin- 
ery of  exchanges  money  should  be  the  wheel 
whose  cogs  should  be  perfectly  adjusted,  in  num- 
ber and  in  size,  to  meet  the  wheels  of  commerce, 
of  merchandize  and  service  and  keep  them  in  per- 
petual motion  without  jarsv  jumps  or  stoppages. 
Money  should  be  ever  present  and  in  value  ex- 
actly equal  to  the  requirements;  no  more,  no  less. 
Being  a  portable  evidence  of  ownership,  it  should 
bear  upon  its  face  that  fact,  in  spirit  and  in  truth. 
Such  money  can  not  originate  in  civil  powers 
whose  duty  is  simply  to  protect  citizens  in  that 
ownership  It  must  emanate  from  the  party  who 
receives  merchandize  or,  service  and  pass  to  the 
party  who  gives  the -merchandize  or  performs  the 
service.  What  has  the  government  to  do  with 
commercial  transactions  .  with  the  course  of 
trade?  The  government  performs  service  for  the 
people  and  it  has  certainly  a  right  to  draw  upon 
said  people  for  the  means  to  sustain  itself.  The 
rpeople  can  not  refuse  ;to  honor  these  drafts,  and 
the  government  should,  by  some  methodv  equalize 
the  burden  of  these  drafts  upon  the  people  so  as 
to  bear  equitably  upon  all  of  them  in  the  propor- 
tion of  their  material,  means  or  Ability.  This  is 
all  the  issue,  all  the  financiering  the  governme 
should  do. 

If  necessity  is  the  mother  of  invention,  wh 
necessity  could  induce  a  government  to  invent  a 
medium  of  exchange,  when  it  has  nothing  to  ex- 
change? And,  as  modern  money  is  a  certificate 
of  ownership,  why  should  a  government  issue 
such  certificates,  when  it  holds  nothing  that  any 
citizen  could  own?  Those  alone  who  have  goods 

service  to  exchange,  feel  the  necessity  of  de- 


OF    THE,   LABOR    EXCHANGE.  49, 

vising  means  and  mediums  for  the  speedy,  safe 
and  equitable  performance  of  such  exchanges. 
Again,  after  these  means  and  mediums  have  been 
found,  they  should  be.  in  the  control  of  tho^e  who 
need  them  and  not  in  the  control  of  government, 
or  banks,;  and  should  not  be  withdrawn  from  the 
channels  of .  trade.  Not  one  single,  valid  argu- 
ment has  ever  been  adduced  to  prove  that  the 
government  is  the  proper  fountain  for  the  issue 
of  money.  All  who  speak  or  write  about  it  do 
but  reiterate  the  same  worn  out  assertion  that 
"the  constitution  h^s  vested  the  power  of  coining 
(not  issuing)  money  in  the  government/'  The 
force  of  habit  has  held  that  right  there.  Such 
vested  monopoly  has  made  of  finances  the  mos^ 
discordant  and  pernicious  piece  of  machinery 
used  by  the  human  race.  It  goes  by  fits  and 
starts.  Sometimes  it  piles  up  money  in  the  pub- 
lic treasury;  at  other  times  the  treasury  is  empty. 
Sometimes  money  flows  freely  in  the  channels  of 
tr'ade;  at  other  times  th:e  channels  are  drained, 
and  are  commercially  paralyzed.  Nature  can  al- 
ways be  relied  on  to  supply  materials,  and  man 
can  be  relied  upon  to  extract  from  nature  the  nec- 
essaries arid  comforts  of  life.  Money  deranges 
everything.  It  causes  millions  to  suffer  jn  sight 
of  plenty.  Take  away  the  control  of  money  from 
the  government  arid  banks-  place  it  in  the  con- 
trol of  industry  and  commerce —  and  the  machin- 
ery of  exchanges  will  run  smoothly.  Even  now 
all  the  improvements  made  in  the  monetary  ma- 
chinery, all  that  is  ingenious,  valuable,  effective; 
letters  of.  exchange,  checks  and  clearing  houses 
are  the  inventions,  not  of  government,  but  of  in- 
dividuals. If  these  improvements  were  also  to 
be  issued  #nd  controled  by  government,  industrial 
progress  would  be  in  a  barbarous,  state. 

The  only  pernicious  part  of  the  machinery, 
the  part  which  causes  financial  panics,  is  the 
part  controled  by  government.  If  the  object  in 


50.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

allowing  government  the  monopoly  of  money- 
making  rests  upon  the  plea  of  establishing  and 
maintaining  justice  between  the  parties  to  an  ex 
change,  it  has  certainly  proven  an  ignominious 
failure.  Aknost  all  commercial  iniquities  are 
based  upon  money  restrictions.  The  instability 
of. prices,  the  purchase  of  land  for  rise,  the  fore- 
stalling of  goods,  gambling  in  produce,  monopol- 
ies and  trusts,  public  bonds  and  private  mort- 
gages are  all  due  to  money  restrictions  caused  by 
government  control. 

Away  with  prerogatives,  with  despotism,  with 
tyranny,  and  with  all  ancient,  contracted  notions. 
Let  industry,  and  all  instrumentalities  necessary 
to  industry,  be  free. 

G.  B.  DE  BARNARDI. 
INDEPENDENCE,  Missouri. 


BRO.  BARNES  has  for  many  years  been  a  stu- 
dent of  advance  features  of  reform  and  for  some 
time  an  ardent  advocate  of  the  "Single  Tax" 
theory,  but  after  studying  the  Labor  Exchange 
system,  he  writes  us  the  following  letter  as  the 

RESULT  OF  INVESTIGATIONS. 

BRO.  E.  Z.  ERNST:  — I  have  just  received  and 
read  the  last  number  of  your  paper  and  think  I 
have  the  idea  of  the  Labor  Exchange. 

I  have  always  thought  the  producer  should 
alone  have  the  results  of  his  productions  but  never 
before  saw  clearly  how  he  could  get  it.  I  have 
advocated  many  reforms  that  would  have  been 
good  if  adopted  as  far  as  they  went.  One  money 
(of  paper),  one  tax,  (of  land  values),  one  brother- 
hood of  the  race,  free  trade,  free  land  and  free 
men,  has  been  my  platform  for  years,  and  I  think 
I  am  thoroughly  conversant  with  many  other  so- 
called  reforms,  but  I  had  about  despaired  of  ever 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  51. 

getting  the  people  educated  up  to  a  reform,  owing 
to  the  apathy  of  those  most  needing  it.  But 
having  recently  read  ' 'Trials  and  Triumph  of 
Labor,"  and  two  numbers  of  your  paper  with 
your  recent  letter  in  reply  to  my  inquiries,  I  am 
convinced  that  the  Labor  Exchange,  for  immed- 
iate application  and  far  reaching  influence  for 
good  in  equalizing  the  wealth  of  the  country  and 
stimulating  industry,  is  far  more  feasible,  and  can 
be  brought  about  with  the  least  friction,  of  any 
reform  I  ever  thought  of.  It  would  hurt  none  but 
those  who  now  get  more  than  they  produce;  es- 
pecially the  money  changers  who  have  always 
been  a  barnacle  on  the  ship  of  state  and  a  leach 
on  the  body  politic  sucking  the  blood  of  the  na- 
tion. It  would  eliminate  the  millionaire,  for  if 
labor  gets  all  it  produces  there  would  be  no  sur- 
plus of  wealth  to  make  him  of.  It  would  turn  all 
people  into  producers  of  wealth,  and  what  an 
abundance  we  would  have  with  our  increased  fa- 
cilities for  producing  it. 

At  present,  less  than  half  the  people  are 
regularly  engaged  in  productive  avocations.  No 
wonder  there  are  so  many  tramps  who  refuse  to 
work  when  they  know  (for  many  are  philosophers) 
that,  if  they  work,  they  will  get  less  than  one  third, 
in  wages,  of  their  product.  I  imagine  they  rea- 
son this  way:,  "If  I  labor  for  the  community  and 
it  takes  more  than  two-thirds  of  the  products  of 
my  toil,  which  should  have  come  to  me,  as  wages, 
it  is  a  greater  robbery  from  me,  by  the  com- 
munity, than  if  1  stopped  laboring  and  stole  one- 
third  from  the  community." 

Under  the  Labor  Exchange  plan  it  will  be 
disgraceful  to  be  idle,  besides,  it  will  not  be  nec- 
essary to  labor  more  than  three  or  four  hours  a 
day  to  produce  as  much  wealth  as  is  now  pro- 
duced, if  all  are  employed,  as  they  would  be 
under  the  Labor  Exchange  system.  Even  the 
millionaire  would  finally  come  to  it  through 


52.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

necessity  and  \vant  of  occupation.  Men  would 
then  choose  their  occupation  and  labor  would 
be  a  delight  instead  of  a  drudgery.  It  would 
be  cheaper  to  earn  a  living  than  to  steal  it. 
Theft  and  absolute  Mleness  would  be  a  disgrace, 
which  it  is  not  now.  Under  proper  conditions  of 
Freedom;  when  labor  is  emancipated  from  the 
present  wage  slavery,  men  would  be  honest. 
The  cost  of  courts,  prisons  and  poor-houses, 
would  be  saved  to  the  people.  Tenement-houses, 
the  progenitors  of  crime  and  pestilence,  would 
not  be  known  as  how.  Lawyers  and  physicians 
little  needed.  They  would  be  turned  into  pro- 
ducers of  wealth. 

There  cannot  be  ah  Over  production  of  good 
things  if  the  ability  to  consume  is  allowed  as 
would  be  under  the  Labor  Exchiange  plan.  One 
beauty  of  the  Labor  Exchange  is  that  the  absolute 
freedom  of  the  individual  is  not  restricted  bylaw. 
Other  communistic  or  socialistic  theories  irnply 
such  restriction.  The  freer  the  people  are  from 
restrictive  lafts,  where  they  infringe  not  upon  the 
equal  freedom  of  any  other  person^  the  better. 
Laws  governing  money  matters  will  finally  be 
eliminated. 

As  labor' ;wiil  be  the  measure  of  value  and 
owing  to  varities  of  climate1  and  abundance  of 
natural  Resources  in  different  parts  :of  the  World, 
the  price  df  an  article1  will  be  measiire'd  by  the 
amount  of  labor  attached  to  it  and  not  as  riow  by 
the  inoriey  wages' ltftios%.  So  there  Would  not  be 
a  shadow  of  excuse  for  a  tariff,  and  ^the  army  of 
custom  house  officers  would  bfc  turned  into  pro1 
diictive  uses.  The  hope  of  the  altruisti't;  Optomist, 
with  faith  in  the  solidity  of  the  race,  :that "if  one 
metiiber  suffer  the  whol^;b6dfi^iri  pain^^as  Christ 
put  it,  will  be  r^afe^ed  fe'f^dition  <lwhieti  swords 
shall  be  beaten  into  plow  Shares  anc!  -spears  into 
prlinirig  ^hooks  arid  'we  sh&li' le^rri  war  no  more 
fGrever." 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  53. 

As  much  as  I  value  other  reforms,  I  am  con- 
vinced that  it  will  take  nearly  a  generation  to  ed- 
ucate the  majority  to  them,  even  if  there  is  not  a 
complete  cataclysm  and  catastrophe  of  this  civili- 
zation, which  seems  pending.  There  must  be 
something  done  immediately.  Otherwise  we  have 
reached  the  climax  of  our  civilization  and  must 
go  as  did  Babylon,  Egpyt,  Rome  and  Greece. 
Yours  for  "Progressive  Thought." 

J.  C.  BARNES. 
HINDSBORO,  Hi.,  Jan.  20,  '94. 

P.  S.  —That  allegory  of  Weaver's  is  the  best 
thing  I  ever  saw  in  so  small  a  space.      J.  C.  B. 


THE  VALUE  OF  THE  CERTIFICATE. 

A  complete  introduction  of  the  Deposit  and 
Certificate  system  will  very  shortly  cure  more 
evils  than  any  ordinary  reformer  has  yet  thought 
of.  It  is  the  lack  of  understanding  on  this  point, 
by  the  toiling  masses,  that  keeps  them  in  poverty 
and  has  given  advantage  to  the  finance  manipu- 
lators of  all  countries  and  ages  in  the  past.  It 
is  but  a  very  simple  trick  to  free  ourselves  from 
the  grasp  of  shylock  if  this  plan  is  taken.  Money 
has  no  real  power  without  the  aid  of  labor,  and  if 
the  workers  will  discard  it,  the  possessors  of  gold, 
silver  or  lawful  money  would  be  compelled  to 
work  or  starve  at  the  mercies  of  the  working 
classes.  Let  us  try  for  freedom  and  be  men. 


54-        THE  PROGRESSIVE  HAND  BOOK 
WORDS  ON  FACE  OF  CHECK 

No July  Series,  1894. 

"IN    LABOR    WE    TRUST/' 

Certificate  of  Deposit         Receivable  for  Goods  at 
issued  by  Branch  No  ....  ,of 

THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE. 

Depositor Deposited 

Market  price  ONE   DOLLAR,    deposited    with    the 
KANSAS  CITY  BRANCH,  No.  ONE. 

Date 189..  Pres. 

Local  Acct.  Sec. 

Below  is  the  wording  of  the  back  of  the  De- 
posit Certificate.  All  rights  reserved. 

Signature  of  Depositor. 

This  certificate  is  receivable  at  Face  value 
by  the  Labor  Exchange  Association  in  payment 
for  merchandise  for  sale,  for  work,  services  and 
all  debts  to  the  same. 

This  Certificate  of  Deposite  is  based  upon, 
secured  by,  and  redeemable  in  Real  and  Personal 
Property  in  the  keeping  of  the  Labor  Exchange 
Association. 

Property  held  for  the  redemption  of  this  Cer- 
tificate   cannot   be    mortgaged    nor    pledged    for 
debts,  nor  can  it  be  withdrawn  except  on  presen- 
tation of  this  Certificate,  but  it  may  be  exchangee 
by  the  Exchange   Association,  for  other  proper 
of  Equal  Value. 


Depositor 
Pay  to 

Space  for  endorsement 


The  checks  are  made  with  a  complete  record 
stub  so  that  a  correct  account  is  always  in  the 
hands  of  the  branch  manager. 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  55, 

THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE. 
Obligation  of  Members. 

I of  the  age  of ....  years,  ....  sex, 

and  by    occupation now    residing  at 

County    of and    state    of 

In  consideration  of  the  rights,  privi- 
leges, benefits  and  protection  conferred  upon  me 
as  a  member  of  the  Labor  Exchange  Association, 
and  to  the  end  that  the  property  of  the  said  As- 
sociation, upon  which  the  safety  of  said  benefits 
is  based,  may  not  be  sacrificed  at  reduced  value 
by  forced  liquidation  in  legal  tender  money,  here- 
by promise  and  agree  that  for  any  article  or  arti- 
cles of  merchandise  and  monies  that  I  may  de- 
posit in  the  keeping  of,  labor  and  services  that  I 
may  perform  for,  or  for  any  certificate  of  deposit 
that  I  may  hold  on,  said  Labor  Exchange,  I  will 
accept  as  sufficient  compensation  thereof  mer- 
chandise, propety,  labor,  or  services  of  equal 
value,  and  relinquish  any  rights,  and  liens  which 
may  have  resulted  in  my  favor  and  against  the 
property  of  the  Association  by  reason  of  said  de- 
posits; labor  or  services. 

In  testimony  thereof  I  have  hereunto  signed 
my  name  in  the  presence  of  the  following  sub- 
scribed witnesses,  this day  of 189  . , 

[SEAL]. 

Witness 

Witness 

WHEN  ALL  MANKIND 

will  be  usefully  employed  and  when  drones  shall 
be  known  no  more,  how  numerous  will  be  the 
comforts  and  luxuries  of  life  added  to  the  human 
family,  not  for  the  idle  but  for  the  industrious. 
When  every  person  shall  have  all  the  shelter,  all 
the  food,  all  the  luxuries,  all  the  sanitary  appli- 
ances with  the  appurtenants  to  regulate  heat  and 
cold  by  the  pressure  of  a  button,  in  fact  have  all 


56.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

the  advantages  dreamt  of  by  Bellamy,  and  advo- 
cated by  Olerich  and  Grunland,  with  a  vast  num- 
ber of  conveniences  not  even  thought  of  by  any 
of  those  illustrious  gentlemen,  but  implied  by 
De  Bernardi  in  his  grand  and  complete  system  of 
true  co-operation  and  individualism  which  needs 
only  to  be  understood  and  operated  to  give  uni- 
versal satisfaction.  When  every  working  man 
may  have  his  own  special  car  or  airship  to  move 
about  at  will  to  and  from  work  or  elsewhere  by 
the  simple  movement  of  a  lever  or  thumb  screw 
and  when  all  these  things  and  many  more  will  be 
accomplished  satisfactorily  with  a  real  heaven 
established  on  earth  and  we  have  a  surplus  "or 
an  over-production"  of  the  goods  things,  then 
may  we  rest  from  our  toils  to  enjoy  the  fruits  of 
our  industry.  Amen. 


POI  NTERS. 


A  CONDITION. 

of  things  confronts  us  which  has  been  predicted 
by  great  minds  for  past  centuries.  Although  the 
"civilized  world"  has  been  in  this  degrading  chan- 
nel for  a  long  time  the  effect  has  not  been  as  per- 
ceptibly disastrous  to  the  human  race  as  within 
the  last  half  of  the  present  century.  The  im- 
provements in  machinery,  traveling  convenience, 
transmitting  of  intelligence,  and  many  electrical 
appliances,  bring  on  a  rapid  succession  of 
changes.  We  are  now  moving  at  a  very  swift 
rate  as  compared  with  that  of  one  hundred  years 
ago,  and  we  venture  to  predict  that  although  it  is 
considered  we  are  now  in  an  electric  age,  it  is  safe 
to  say  it  is  just  the  beginning  of  what  may  be  ex- 
pected within  the  next  decade  or  the  finishing 
of  the  present  century.  Much  has  been  promised 
for  the  twentieth  century  by  sage  and  prophet,  yet 
few  have  a  definite  idea  of  what  shall  transpire 
or  how  near  the  change  is  at  hand.  If  we  were 
to  give  an  outline  of  the  probable  improvements 
to  be  made  in  the  social  system  in  the  latter  days 
of  the  nineteenth  century  we  fear  the  effect  might 
destroy  the  peace  of  the  contented  who  think  the 
"good  old  way  of  our  fathers"  is  good  enough  for 
us.  Let  us  not  stand  in  the  way  of  progress  but 
cast  our  might  with  the  genuine  "salt  of  the 
earth." 


5o.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

THE   NON-PRODUCER 

can  not  be  provided  with  a  desirable  place.  Do 
you  want  to  produce  and  exchange  with  a  person 
who  does  not  produce  or  do  any  valuable  service 
in  exchange?  A  consumer  without  being  a  pro- 
ducer or  an  auxilliary  to  the  producer  is  a  drone 
and  must  not  be  tolerated.  To  be  an  invalid  or 
a  creature  of  misfortune  no  complaint  will  be 
made,  but  to  be  a  stout  and  healthy  non-produc- 
ing consumer  it  shall  be  prohibited.  It  is  the 
unworthy  non- producers  who  are  causing  the  op- 
pression of  the  working  people  by  a  system  of 
"legal  tender"  money,  usury  and  spurious  laws. 

Smart  men  they  be, 

Yes,  great  rascals,  think  we. 

OPERATION. 

When  you  begin  to  understand  the  plan,  the 
next  to  be  done  is  to  put  it  into  operation  by  be- 
ginning to  talk  it,  write  it  and  teach  it,  at  all  times 
and  in  all  places  wherever  you  chance  to  be. 
Never  allow  any  other  subject  to  take  preference. 
Always  bear  in  mind  that  labor  and  the  just  ex- 
change of  its  products  is  the  only  basis  upon 
which  good  society  can  be  supported.  You  need 
never  expect  to  accomplish  any  thing  by  waiting 
for  the  other  fellow  to  take  the  lead.  Every  tub 
should  stand  on  its  own  bottom  and  of  course  we 
are  expected  to  work  out  our  own  salvation.  In 
this  plan  of  operation  your  reward  will  depend  on 
the  service  you  perform.  Our  methods  are  based 
on  rewards,  as  we  have  more  faith  in  such  ince 
tives  than  in  punishment. 

NO  ONE  WISHES 

to  be  compelled  to  do  a  certain  thing  at  a  certa 
t  me  by  law.  More  can  be  accomplished  at  free 
will  when  properly  rewarded  in  accord  with  the 
labor  performed.  This  is  one  reason  the  co-op- 
erative common  wealth,  so  much  spoken  of,  will 
not  prove  a  success.  Another  good  reason  it  will 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  59. 

not  be  satisfactory  lies  in  the  fact  that  govern- 
ment or  corporation  money  is  not  the  people's 
money  and  must  eventually  ruin  the  producer. 
Again  the  curse  of  an  army  of  officials  is  a  burden 
upon  the  workers  they  cannot  always  endure,  and 
the  time  is  fast  approaching  when  they  cannot  be 
tolerated  any  longer. 

THIS  BOOK 

is  intended  as  a  cheap  work  to  attract  the  at- 
tention of  the  public  and  lead  the  mind  on  to  an 
investigation  of  the  merits  of  the  Labor  Exchange 
Any  person  who  can  in  any  honorable  way  get  a 
copy  of  ''Trials  and  Triumph  of  Labor"  should 
do  so  and  reap  many  times  the  cosjt  in  valuable 
knowledge.  The  revised  and  enlarged  edition 
will  soon  go  to  press. 

The  expense  of  becoming  a^life  member  may 
be  summed  up  as  follows:  "The  Progressive 
Hand  Book"  25c;  "Trials  and  Triumph  of 
Labor,"  5oc;  membership,  $1.00.  And  to  keep 
posted  on  the  movement  take  the  "Progressive 
Thought"  or  some  of  the  other  advocates  of  the 
cause. 


SIGNS  OF  THE  TIMES 

And  the  operation  of  natural  and  applied 
science  are  steadily  working  out  the  salvation  of 
the  human  race.  The  most  enlightened  minds 
lead  the  way  upward  and  onward  to  a  higher 
condition,  and  in  fact  toward  a  real  civilization. 
It  is  absurd  to  think  that  the  present  state  of  so- 
ciety is  civilized,  when  injustice,  theft  and  des- 
truction, is  uppermost  in  the  customs  of  the  earth. 
Can  we  riot  imagine  and  put  into  motion  a  better 
state  of  things  and  instead  of  going  downward, 
why  not  rise  upward.  We  certainly  can,  and  the 
way  to  accomplish  it  is  to  set  about  learning  how 
and  carry  out  the  knowledge  when  acquired. 


6o.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

Much  theorizing  might  be  indulged  in  but  the 
past  is  noted  for  that  sort  of  fallacies.  What  we 
need  most  now  and  without  delay  is  the  demon- 
stration of  practical  facts  in  every  part  of  the 
land.  Put  an  object  lesson  into  every  state  at 
once  and  soon  the  whole  country  will  be  in  a 
blaze  with  the  possibilities  of  the  exchange.  Hu- 
manity should  be  employed  at  some  useful  pass- 
time  either  for  health  or  amusement,  or  both.  The 
producers  certainly  should  have  full  control  of 
their  own  creation  and  plenty  of  liberty  to  dis- 
pose of  their  own  possessions  upon  whatever  plan 
they  desire  when  not  interfering  with  the  rights  of 
others.  A  system  that  will  bring  about  this  con- 
dition by  the  daily  transactions  of  business  prin- 
ciples is  the  invention  of  the  human  mind  based 
upon  the  science  of  nature,  and  the  projector  is 
entitled  to  more  praise  and  honor  than  the  inven- 
tors of  the  most  valuable  contrivances  of  mechan- 
ism or  the  discoveries  of  new  worlds. 


NO   MAJORITY  NEEDED. 

In  our  operations  we  need  no  majority, 
when  in  the  business  world  ninety-five  ,per  cent 
of  the  transactions  are  made  on  paper  obligations 
and  credits,  while  less  than  five  per  cent,  is  repre- 
sented by  money,  and  yet  that  small  twentieth  part 
virtually  controls  the  entire  industries  of  the  coun- 
try. Think  for  a  moment  and  give  a  reason  if 
you  can  why  the  toilers  must  bow  down  and  wor- 
ship gold  or  any  other  money.  Why  can  they 
not  make  use  of  the  clearing  house  system,  issue 
checks  of  credit  to  every  one  who  will  create 
wealth,  thereby  exchanging  the  surplus  product, 
capture  that  little  giant  called  money  and  bind 
him  hand  and  foot  to  be  cast  into  outer  darkness. 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  6 1. 


THE  STORE, 

It  is  not  intended  that  the  laboring  people 
shall  take  to  store  keeping  and  attempt  to  get 
rich  by  trading  in  the  products  of  others,  but  it 
is  well  for  each  branch  to  establish  a  commissary, 
or  depository,  where  they  can  supply  the  laborers 
with  the  various  necessaries  while  at  work.  The 
first  step  is  to  educate  at  least  a  few  on  the  ad- 
vantages of  this  grand  plan.  Next  organize  a 
branch  by  getting  some  to  become  members  and 
beginning  actual  work  of  some  kind  for  creating 
wealth.  Then  prepare  the  deposit  certificates 
and  issue  them  to  the  depositors  of  wealth  at  the 
wholesale  market  price,  continuing  to  do  all  you 
can  while  using  the  checks  the  same  as  money  in 
all  trades  wherever  possible.  Very  soon  the  va- 
rious merchants  and  tradesmen  will  be  glad  to 
take  them  and  get  the  usual  profit  on  your  trade. 
As  soon  as  you  feel  able  to  increase  the  variety 
of  your  stock  on  hand  it  may  be  well  to  put  in 
such  goods  as  are  in  almost  constant  demand  by 
the  hands  employed  in  order  that  it  may  be  more 
convenient  to  make  exchanges  and  save  them 
from  the  use  of  money.  We  in  all  cases  treat 
money  as  a  commodity  and  therefore  if  we  should 
chance  to  have  any,  it  is  deposited  with  the  branch 
and  checks  taken  for  the  same.  This  virtually 
gives  us  a  double  power  over  other  business 
firms,  for,  while  we  send  out  the  money  to  bring 
us  goods  from  a  distance  and  fill  up  the  stock  of 
wares,  we  do  not  create  a  scarcity  of  money,  or 
a  money  panic,  for  the  checks  are  being  used 
locally  for  an  exchange  or  trading  medium.  When 
the  goods  arrive  at  the  store-house  the  checks 
can  be  used  by  any  holder  to  draw  articles  from 
the  stock  at  retail  rates,  thus  leaving  some  profit 


()2.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

in  the  trade  to  aid  in  the  economic  transaction 
of  the  association  and  to  provide  against  future 
emergencies.  The  plan  of  quanerly  or  annual 
dividends  is  a  curse  to  co-operation  and  will 
choke  down  any  enterprise  intended  to  aid  reform 
among  the  producers.  Interest  is  an  absolute 
robber  and  can  not  be  recognized  in  this  associa- 
tion. Debt  must  not  be  allowed  in  the  Labor  Ex- 
change under  any  circumstance  although  the  as- 
sociation may  loan  its  checks  to  individuals  upon 
good  security  and  collect  one  and  seven  eights 
per  cent  per  annum  for  the  cost  of  handling  that 
division  of  the  business. 


TO  BE  SUCCESSFUL, 

If  any  organization  ever  succeeds  in  getting 
justice  for  labor  it  can  be  only  through  the  meth- 
od laid  down  by  Bro.  De  Bernard),  After  the 
proper  enlightenment  is  obtained  there  is  very  lit- 
tle trouble  or  expense  required  to  operate  where 
mind  and  muscle  are  willing.  It  is  the  education- 
al work  which  needs  to  be  pushed  right  now.  It 
will  utterly  destroy  the  source  of  iniquity  in  every 
community.  If  you  are  not  thoroughly  posted  in 
regard  to  the  details  of  the  Labor  Exchange  it 
will  be  of  special  interest  to  you  to  investigate  it: 
without  delay.  Millions  of  wealth  are  annually 
wasted  in  the  organization  of  incomplete  plans 
keeping  up  fat  salaried  officers,  lecturers  and  ag 
tators  with  literature,  delegates  and  convention 
resulting  in  very  little  effect  except  to  give  a  few 
fortunate  ones  a  lift  at  the  expense  of  the  sup- 
porters, and  if  you  are  going  to  wait  until  those 
holding  paying  positions  will  aid  you,  your 
case  is  hopeless.  There  is  nothing  sectarian, 
partisan,  compulsary  nor  objectionable  in  this 
method  and  thereis  no  reason  why  you  should  not 
at  once  act  upon  the  advice  given  and  do  the  most 
good  possible  for  yourself  and  the  human  family. 


— j 
ans. 
agi- 
3ns, 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE. 


CONSIDER  THIS. 

Our  plan  for  getting  the  necessary  funds  to 
push  the  Labor  Exchange  work  into  every  home 
is  absolutely  safe.  The  central  office  of  the  gen- 
eral organization  is  the  place  to  which  and  from 
which  the  progressive  ideas  and  information  will 
flow,  and  needs  the  aid  of  all  well  wishers  of  this 
glorious  cause.  We  have  on  hand  the  work  of 
publishing  "Trials  and  Triumph  of  Labor,"  The 
Progressive  Hand  Book,  Monthly  Publications, 
Blank  Books,  etc.,  also  the  Progressive  Thought. 
The  Labor  Exchange  Journal,  monthlies,  quarter- 
lies and  other  literature,  including  checks,  obliga- 
tions and  forms,  for  the  general  work  and  the 
branches.  All  to  be  furnished  at  fair  rates,  but 
no  one  is  obliged  to  patronize  the  central  office 
unless  he  chooses.  Any  one  inclined  to  aid  the 
work  can  do  so  without  the  outlay  of  a  nickle  by 
the  following  plan: 

A.  M.  deposits  $i  or  more  with  us  for  which 
General  Certificates  are  issued  representing  the 
amount  deposited,  A.  M.  holds  his  Deposit  Cer- 
tificate just  long  enough  until  he  finds  a  converted 
neighbor  or  some  one  who  wants  books,  papers, 
or  advertising  at  the  Center  or  (as  they  are  good 
at  any  branch  or  with  any  one  understanding  the 
system)  they  can  be  used  in  exchanging  goods  or 
products  between  various  points  from  the  Atlan- 
tic to  the  Pacific  with  greater  safety  and  conven- 
ience than  with  "legal  tender"  money.  They  are 
based  on  the  publications  of  the  central  office,  in 
which  every  laboring  man  and  woman  should  be 
interested,  and  will  be  redeemed  at  any  time  in 
subscriptions  to  the  papers  and  other  literature 
published  here,  for  books,  blanks,  advertising  and 
for  membership  fees,,  without  discount. 


64.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 


AN  IDEA, 

If  you  have  property  sell  it  to,  or  mortgage  it 
with,  the  local  branch  of  the  exchange  and  take 
checks  on  it  with  which  you  can  do  business 
among  the  members  of  the  branch  and  most  of 
the  business  firms  will  soon  take  them.  This  will 
increase  the  mediums  of  exchange  and  loosen  up 
the  legal  tender  money  and  make  it  easier  to  be 
had  when  needed  to  pay  lawful  debts.  Seer 
Certificates  issued  against  wealth  by  the  authority 
of  the  producers  are  truly  more  valuable  than  any 
fiat  or  metal  money,  because  it  is  a  representative 
of  real  value.  The  certificates  go  direct  to  the 
person  who  produced  the  wealth  or  performed  the 
service  it  represents  without  passing  through  the 
hands  of  officials  and  tax  gatherers.  There  can- 
not be  any  corner  on  them  by  law  or  speculation- 
and  when  some  are  out  in  circulation  there  must 
be  a  proportional  amount  of  wealth  in  store. 
Whenever  a  person  runs  short  of  checks  all  that 
is  necessary  is  to  go  to  work  and  produce  more 
wealth  and  get  more  checks  accordingly. 

OUR  PUBLICATIONS 

in  the  form  of  books,  journals,  pamphlets,  etc.T 
are  intended  to  teach  the  people  the  objects, 
plans  and  benefits  of  the  Labor  Exchange.  There 
is  no  expense  but  there  are  grand  benefits  for  the 
industrious.  There  can  be  no  just  reason  why 
every  person  who  wants  work  could  not  get  it  and 
thereby  be  enabled  to  have  all  the  necessaries  and 
luxuries  of  life  they  desire.  The  extreme  simplic- 
ity of  this  method  causes  many  to  look  over  it 
and  form  mistaken  ideas  of  its  utility  and  power. 
In  some  cases  vanity  and  selfishness  prevent  a 
true  search  for  knowledge,  but  we  hope  no  one 
who  reads  this  work,  will  think  his  time  too  valu- 
able to  thoroughly  investigate  this  matter.  We 
feel  certain  your  time  cannot  be  better  applied. 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  65. 

No  doubt  you  have  yet  something  to  learn  in  co- 
operation and  we  hope  you  will  advance  as  fast 
as  possible.  Lost  time  can  never  be  found  again. 
Better  conditions  are  needed  at  once  and  every 
honest  worker  should  endeaver  to  progress  as 
steadily  and  quickly  as  conditions  will  permit. 
We  wish  ever  to  advance,  and  knowing  there  can 
be  no  better  way  out  of  the  present  difficulties 
than  this,  we  entreat  you  to  give  all  the  aid  and 
encouragement  you  can  for  the  deliverance  of  the 
human  family  from  the  influence  of  false  and  in- 
iquitous teaching.  Search  earnestly  and  unbiased 
for  the  true  light  and  you  shall  surely  be  reward- 
ed. 


REASONING. 

Co-operation  is  the  only  plan  that  will  bring 
permanent  relief  to  the  producing  classes.  Par- 
tisan politics  or  sectarian  religion  can  not  bring 
the  relief  needed,  neither  can  any  other  method 
as  long  as  the  operation  is  conducted  by  avaric- 
ious spirits  and  the  money  power.  A  correct  sys- 
tem of  action  must  be  adopted  in  order  that  no 
one  may  get  undue  advantage  of  his  fellow  work- 
men, not  even  by  law  or  with  money.  It  is  fair 
that  every  producer  should  get  an  equivalent  for 
all  that  he  produces,  but  he  has  very  little  need 
for  consumers  who  do  not  produce  an  equivalent 
for  what  they  consume.  Every  producer  is  also 
a  consumer,  therefore,  the  great  need  of  organiz- 
ing a  purely  co-operative  Labor  Exchange  for  the 
benefit  of  the  wealth  producers  upon  just  princi- 
ples. 

Is  it  not  a  strange  system  that  will  enrich 
men  who  do  not  produce,  but  consume  extrava- 
gantly, while  the  producers  are  getting  poorer  in 
the  face  of  penurious  economy  in  consumption? 
yet  such  is  very  plainly  the  case  at  present  on 
either  hand.  This  has  been  so  for  many  genera- 


00.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

tions  and  in  every  land  where  modern  civilization 
(money  rule)  has  sway.  Do  you  not  think  that  if 
the  people  who  create  the  wealth  would  exchange 
it  with  each  other,  then  they  alone  would  have 
the  wealth?  A  fair  exchange  cannot  rob  laborers 
nor  fatten  the  idle. 

Our  best  minds  are  seeking  for  a  solution  and 
rapidly  uniting  in  the  conclusion  that  the  greatest 
trouble  lies  in  the  unfair  exchange  of  wealth  and 
that  the  present  financiering  is  at  the  bottom  of 
all;  as  is  written,*"The  love  of  money  is  the  root 
of  all  evil/' hence  better  plans  are  being  proposed. 
By  much  careful  investigation  we  learn,  and  are 
fully  convinced,  that  the  proper  method  of  ex- 
change has  been  thought  out  and  compiled  by  Q. 
B.  De  Bernardi,  who  has  made  this  question  the 
study  of  a  perspicacious  mind  for  more  than  a 
generation.  No  student  of  economics  has  ever 
been  able  to  puncture  any  part  of  its  construction. 
All  that  now  lacks,  is  the  willingness  of  the  peo- 
ple to  learn  the  true  road  to  success,  and  to  put 
it  in  operation  in  every  town  and  country. 

Can  it  be  possible  that  the  masses  are  not 
yet  tired  of  these  galling  circumstances,  which 
unjust  laws  and  plutocratic  money  have  brought 
upon  them?  Must  they  have  more  time  to  think 
and  suffer  because  of  their  inborn  desire  to  wor- 
ship "money  metal,"  of  which  they  seldom  get 
any,  and  then  again  soon  leaves  them  poorer  than 
it  found  them.  Labor  should  not  alone  produce 
the  wealth  but  also  the  medium  of  exchange,  the 
representative  of  wealth,  based  on  the  real  prod- 
uct to  facilitate  commerce. 

When  government  makes  a  "legal  tender"' 
money,  the  officials  get  first  control  of  it.  Now 
with  speculators,  officials  and  the  money  sharks, 
in  complete  command  of  trade,  the  price  of  pro- 
ducts soon  runs  low,  and  when  the  producers  get 
part  of  it  for  a  year's  toil  the  officials  tax  the 
workers,  or  increase  the  volume  so  that  expense 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  67. 

(salaries  and  interests  on  investments)  can  be 
paid,  and  so  on  from  time  to  time  until  labor  gets 
a  trifle  and  parasites  roll  in  luxury  and  arrogance. 
No!  not  that  way  for  us!  Give  a  fair  deal  and 
producers  can  soon  have  all  they  need  but  the  idle 
must  work  or  want. 

The  people  make  no  manner  of  use  of  money 
but  only  the  products  of  labor  mental  or  phsi- 
cal.  Money  should  be  issued  and  controlled  by 
the  producers  so  it  can  be  redeemed  in  real 
values.  It  should  also  be  as  an  open  account 
showing  on  the  face  of  it  the  amount  the  holder 
has  deposited  with  society  and  is,  therefore,  en- 
titled to  draw  an  equivolent  of  any  thing  society 
may  hold  on  deposit.  If  one  is  not  a  producer 
he  will  not  be  a  holder  of  drafts  on  society  nor 
any  body  else. 


RATHER  STRANGE. 

Is  is  not  rather  strange  that  after  investiga- 
tors have  studied  and  worried  and  worked  and 
have  taken  advantage  of  the  dire  experience  of 
others  who  have  failed  before  them  to  establish  a 
complete  system  of  co-operation  that  the  old 
methods  are  still  persisted  in  against  all  proofs  to 
the  contrary.  We  still  find,  some  who  will  try  the 
same  old  condemned  plan  again  and  again.  Com- 
munism and  stock  company  or  profit  sharing  co- 
operation have  been  proven  time  and  again  to  be 
a  failure  and  yet  they  have  their  friends  who  are 
being  robbed  of  much  valuable  time  and  honest 
effort.  These  do  not  have  a  grain  of  show  be- 
side the  correct  principles  of  the  Labor  Exchange. 

THE  CAUSE, 

Many  organizations  claiming  to  be  co-opera- 
tive and  proposing  to  take  up  the  colony  feature 
are  now  being  formed  in  many  places  throughout 
the  world,  and  especially  of  late  in  America. 


68.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

The  oppressed  condition  of  the  wealth  producers 
is  driving  men  to  seek  new  plans  for  operation. 
It  pleases  us  to  learn  that  humanity  still  retains 
sufficient  vim  and  manhood  to  look  for  better 
conditions  and  we  are  convinced  they  will  find 
relief  by  and  through  proper  investigation,  yet  we 
are  sorry  to  note  the  fact  that  many  of  the  select- 
ed or  self  instituted  leaders  of  factions  are  seem- 
ingly not  as  sincere  in  their  motives  as  they  should 
be  in  a  matter  of  so  vast  importance  to  their  fol- 
lowers. In  several  instances  we  have  tried  to 
convince  projectors  of  the  folly  of  dividing  the 
co-operative  movement  and  leading  different  di- 
visions into  wrong  channels  and  succeeded  in 
convincing  most  of  them  that  it  is  best  to  keep 
upon  true  lines,  yet  a  few  still  hold  out  to  their 
set  ways,  seemingly  not  caring  to  be  set  aright  as 
long  as  their  game  promises  to  bring  them  revenue 
for  the  time  being.  We  desire  to  work  for  jus- 
tice and  nothing  else.  It  is  but  a  slight  task  to 
lead  to  harmonize  upon  correct  lines.  In  some 
cases  it  is  plainly  the  love  of  personal  pride  or 
gain  that  prevents  unity,  yet  under  all  circum- 
stances we  have  the  satisfaction  of  purity  of  pur- 
pose on  our  part  and  the  knowledge  that  all  fac- 
tion must  come  to  the  genuine  principles  of  the 
Labor  Exchange  within  a  very  few  years;  because 
it  contains  the  only  complete  form  of  action  that 
can  stand  the  test  of  a  fair  trial  and  guarantee 
lasting  success. 


MISCELLANEOUS, 

THE  COXEY  MOVEMENT. 

So  much  has  been  said  of  the  late  Coxey 
movement  that  we  might  ask  why  the  army  should 
not  be  put  to  work  building  fine  comfortable 
homes  for  every  family  not  yet  having  one  of 
their  own.  It  seems  to  us  it  would  be  more  pref- 
erable to  have  a  home  to  go  to  in  bad  weather 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  69. 

than  to  make  a  good  road  for  nabobs  to  ride  upon. 
One  of  the  fallicies  of  the  laboring  people  is  that 
they  prefer  to  allow  themselves  to  be  robbed  for 
a  small  part  of  their  product  in  what  they  call 
wages.  They  should  work  on  the  principle  that 
nature  pays  them  all  they  create  and  in  that  way 
it  is  a  fact  they  can  get  all  in  just  payment  that  is 
due  them.  What  is  most  needed  by  the  Ameri- 
can people,  a  home  of  their  own  with  something 
to  live  upon  or  a  good  road  to  tramp  and  ride 
bicycles  on. 

WOMAN'S   SUFFRAGE. 

Great  stress  is  laid  by  some  upon  the  neces- 
sity of  Woman's  Suffrage,  in  order  that  humanity 
might  be  freed  from  many  of  its  iniquities,  and 
although  we  fully  believe  that  women  are  created 
free  and  equal  and  that  they  are  entitled  to  all 
the  rights  and  privileges  God  has  given  them  with- 
out restrictions  by  man-made  laws  or  spurious 
customs,  yet  we  would  ask  to  know  if  it  be  better 
to  wait  awhile  longer  for  that  grant  through  the 
statutes  so  they  can  vote  once  in  a  few  years  and 
still  suffer  the- want  of  bread,  or  might  it  not  be 
better  to  apply  to  nature  by  a  plan  of  production 
and  equitable  exchange  for  the  necessary  food 
and  shelter  which  is  so  sorely  needed  right  now. 

CONVENTIONS. 

What  an  abomination,  an  outrage  and  ex- 
pense a  state  or  national  convention  is,  where 
the  best  thinkers  are  seldom  present  nor  have  an 
opportunity  to  be  heard  if  they  were,  and  where 
the  wire  pullers  and  fixers  are  ever  busy  getting 
matters  into  shape  to  suit  themselves  or  their  friends, 
the  boodlers.  Where  the  minds  are  confused  with 
the  noise,  excitement  and  swaggering  of  the  dele- 
gates until  the  will  of  the  people  is  no  longer  rec- 
ognized. Why  not  introduce  the  "Telephone 
Center,"  of  the  Labor  Exchange  and  attend  to  all 
such  matters  and  an  innumerable  amount  of  other 


70.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

things  right  from  the  various  individual  firesides 
without  one  person  leaving  home  or  the  addition- 
al cost  of  one  cent,  and  give  every  man  and  wo- 
man an  equal  voice  in  the  affairs  of  the  people. 
As  the  true  system  grows  from  time  to  time  these 
new  ideas  will  be  introduced  and  operated  to 
greatly  advance  beneficial  methods  and  serve  to 
establish  scientific  principles. 

LABOR  SAVING  MACHINERY. 

Seemingly  many  good  people  cannot  see  the 
right  side  of  all  questions.  To  our  way  of  view- 
ing matters  there  can  be  but  one  correct  plan  for 
all  things,  and  such  is  the  case  in  the  machinery 
question.  If  the  mind  is  right  the  thoughts 
should  come  forth  all  right  too.  The  more  labor 
saving  machinery  the  better  should  be  the  condi- 
tion of  the  working  people.  Labor  produces  the 
machines  and  the  machines  combined  with  some 
labor  rapidly  produce  other  products.  There- 
fore the  more  machinery  the  more  products  and 
the  less  toil  for  the  laborer  and  of  course  better 
conditions,  because  there  is  more  time  for  im- 
provement. The  present  trouble  lies  in  the  wage 
system,  and  labor  sells  the  machinery  it  makes  for 
a  trifle  in  wages  and  thus  it  is  the  case  with  all 
the  products.  Stop  the  wage  system  and  keep 
the  products  for  your  own -use  and  labor  will  soon 
know  the  advantage  of  labor  saving  machinery. 


SCRAPS  OF  INTEREST. 

Our  lecturers  and  organizers  charge  very  lit- 
tle more  than  for  necessary  expenses,  and  are 
successful  workers  but  without  railroad  passes. 
If  you  think  you  see  an  opportunity  to  put  in  a. 
branch,  let  us  know,  so  we  can  mark  out  a  line  of 
action.  We  never  fail  to  convince  the  honest  in- 
telligent in  an  audience  when  they  pay  attention 
to  our  explanation  and  illustrations. 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  71. 

New  ideas  are  ever  in  demand  at  the  uPro- 
gressive  Thought"  office,  as  we  desire  to  keep  in 
the  lead  on  such  advance  thoughts  as  will  be  of 
benefit  to  the  human  family.  Send  them  in. 

Government  is  generally  ready  to  punish  its 
subject  but  slow  to  reward  the  worthy.  Millions 
to  destroy  lives,  homes  and  society,  but  nothing 
to  educate  and  properly  employ  the  destitute. 

It  is  prejudice  and  ignorance  which  prevents 
the  American  people  from  making  the  proper 
progress.  Can't  we  get  out  of  the  rut? 

When  information  is  wanted  do  not  forget 
that  the  postage  and  stationary  at  our  end  of  the 
line  is  a  heavy  expense  and  unless  we  are  furn- 
ished in  some  way  we  cannot  meet  the  demand. 
Pointers  on  this  the  Grandest  Movement  on  Earth 
are  certainly  worthy  of  some  pay.  Remember 
we  are  working  and  sacrificing  that  the  oppressed 
may  be  set  at  liberty  and  justice  rule  in  the  land 
henceforth  and  forever. 

The  use  of  the  Certificates  of  Deposit  does 
not  necessarily  do  away  with  the  United  States 
money,  but  it  increases  the  circulation  that  much, 
and  no  law  nor  tax  can  prohibit  the  free  and  vol- 
untary use  of  them.  Herein  lies  one  of  the  main 
forts  of  the  Labor  Exchange.  It  is  simple  and 
can  be  easily  applied,  then  why  not  make  use  of 
it. 

MONOPOLIES  AND  COMBINES  control  nearly 
every  thing  in  this  country,  even  legislation.  Bad 
management  in  the  exchange  of  products  is  the 
trouble.  The  savage  practices  of  war  cannot 
remedy  it  but  peaceful  evolution  will.  Arbitra- 
tion must  displace  the  courts  of  jurisdiction  and 
the  laws  of  nature  shall  be  cultivated  with  respect 
to  the  rights  of  a  more  civilized  race.  The  time 
is  here  for  a  quiet  peaceful  change  in  our  busi- 
ness and  social  'relation,  and  it  is  partly  our  mis- 


72.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    ROOK 

sion  to  show  the  world  how  it  can  be  done  very 
beautifully  and  with  ease.  Will  you  follow  when 
the  way  is  plainly  mapped  out? 

ONE  REASON  some  people  oppose  universal 
employment  and  fair  exchange  is  sfmply  because 
it  would  give  the  workers  more  and  the  idle  less. 
Is  that  not  good  philosophy  for  the  drones? 

THE  CERTIFICATES  OF  DEPOSIT  need  not  be 
redeemed  at  the  Exchange  office  at  once  but  may 
pass  through  many  different  hands,  paying  debts 
and  exchanging  products  for  months,  and  thereby 
increase  the  circulating  medium  of  the  locality. 
Is  it  not  just  as  good  as  any  money  for  trading 
products  or  service?  When  the  real  deposit  is 
wanted  the  holder  of  the  check  can  draw  the  de- 
posit or  its  equivalent.  What  difference  can  it 
make  to  the  producer  of  what  kind  of  material  our 
money  is  made,  providing  it  will  equitably  dis- 
tribute the  wealth  to  those  rightfully  entitled  to 
it.  We  as  toilers  ask  not  for  alms  but  for  justice 
in  its  simplicity  and  entirety,  in  order  that  the 
glorious  principles  may  continue  to  grow  and  ex- 
pand. 

LEGAL  TENDER,  government  or  corporation 
money  are  frauds  to  rob  the  laborers  of  their  pro- 
ducts. A  better  way  to  deal  with  the  finance 
question  must  be  put  in  force.  Where  there  is 
much  wealth  produced  there  also  money  should 
be  plentiful.  No  one  is  entitled  to  credit  paper 
unless  something  has  been  done  as  an  equivalent 
to  the  credit.  Money  should  have  no  value  ex- 
cept as  a  representative  in  an  open  account  be- 
tween individual  and  associated  possession. 


MORE  JUSTICE  NEEDED. 

Stand  by  your  rights  and  you  must  be  recog- 
nized sooner  or  later.  Truth  never  dies  although 
it  may  be  badly  abused.  Humanity  needs  more 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  73. 

justice  and  less  spurious  laws.  Let  us  take  a  rest 
from  absurdities  and  apply  such  principles  of 
science  and  nature  as  will  accord  to  the  rights  of 
man  and  henceforth  reap  the  just  reward  due  to 
each.  Co-operative  individualism  is  the  only 
true  method  by  which  permanent  relief  can  be  af- 
fected in  order  that  the  industrious  may  receive 
the  full  benefits  of  their  toil.  A  member  will  be 
in  full  brotherhood  wherever  he  will  be  found  and 
the  whole  race  of  workers  will  be  one  band  of  co- 
operators,  each  receiving  a  just  portion  of  the  un- 
bounded wealth  individually  created  and  yet  col- 
lectively protected  against  injustice  or  frauds. 


EXCHANGE   BILL. 

The  following  proposed  bill  was  gotten  up  by 
E.  Z.  Ernst  and  presented   to  the    Kansas    House 
January,  1893,  and  if  you  cannot  do  better  we  ad 
vise  you  to  have  your   legislature   enact  its    prin- 
ciples based  upon  the  formulas  given  below: 

uFor  the  purpose  of  facilitating  the  exchange 
of  products  and  thereby  increasing  prosperity, 
promoting  and  enlivening  business  throughout  the 
state  in  every  department  of  industry,  and  to 
avoid  the  enormous  drainage  of  interest  money 
continually  paid  by  the  producers  which  is  a 
heavy  burden  upon  the  wealth  of  the  state,  and  to 
protect  people  against  the  avarice  of  outside  cap- 
ital, the  following  sections  shall  be  used  as  a  foun- 
dation to  place  upon  the  statutes  a  law  known  as 
the  state  exchange  bill: 

"SECTION  i.  Every  county  treasury  and  the 
state  treasury  of  the  state  of  Kansas,  upon  the 
passage  of  this  act,  shall  be  created  a  clearing 
house  to  do  a  regular  line  of  clearing  house  busi- 
ness for  the  exchange  of  local  credit  paper,  and 
also  to  transact  such  necessary  clearing  house 
business  between  counties,  and  also  between  the 
state  treasury  and  the  several  counties,  as  will  be 


74-  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

necessary  to  form  a  complete  circuit  of  exchange 
within  the  commonwealth,  besides  the  business 
transacted  by  the  various  treasuries  in  the  past. 

"SEC.  2.  That  any  person  being  a  resident  of 
a  county  and  will  give  first  class  security  in  real 
estate,  personal  property,  or  such  as  is  properly 
indorsed  and  secured  by  one  or  more  persons 
who  are  ample  security  for  the  same,  shall  be  al- 
lowed to  place  on  credit  in  the  clearing  house 
these  securities  as  a  deposit  on  bond,  and  for  col- 
lateral to  secure  a  credit  upon  which  can  be 
checked  at  will,  until  the  amount  of  such  credit 
shall  be  exhausted  or  the  time  for  balancing  ac- 
counts may  have  arrived,  as  provided  for  in  sec- 
tion 3. 

"SEC.  3.  Credit  shall  not  be  given  for  more 
than  one  half  of  the  appraised  value  of  the  secur- 
ities given,  nor  shall  there  be  placed  to  the  credit 
of  any  man  or  woman  a  sum  representing  less 
than  $25  nor  more  than  $2,000,  and  in  no  case  shall 
the  balancing  of  accounts  be  deferred  longer  than 
six  months  from  the  time  of  placing  the  credit, 
and  at  the  end  of  which  time  a  balance  may  be 
declared  and  the  account  continued,  or  if  neces- 
sary, a  new  security  given  and  a  new  transaction 
begun. 

''SEC.  4.  These  credit  securities  shall  be  as 
binding  upon  individual  persons,  personal  prop- 
erty, or  real  estate,  as  are  personal  securities, 
chattel  mortgages  or  real  estate  mortgages  in  any 
other  case,  and  are  as  an  encumbrance  upon  such 
person  or  property  until  the  account  with  the 
clearing  house  is  balanced  and  the  credit  removed. 
In  case  the  depositor  of  credit  should  fail  to  com- 
ply with  the  requirements,  the  necessary  cost  of 
prosecution  and  recovering  of  loss,  if  there  be 
any,  shall  be  charged  to  the  credit  depositor  who 
has  been  in  default,  and  the  same  shall  be  dealt 
with  in  accordance  to  the  laws  of  the  state  in  sim- 
ilar cases,  where  fraud  may  be  perpetrated. 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  75. 

CtSEC.  5.  The  combined  credits  of  the  per- 
sons who  have  credits  deposited  in  the  clearing 
house  at  the  time  shall  form  the  basis  upon  which 
the  clearing  house  can  issue  credit  checks;  but  at 
no  time  shall  the  clearing  house  issue  more 
checks  than  to  amount  to  one  third  of  the  avarage 
credits  deposited.  The  clearing  house  checks, 
from  county  or  state,  shall  be  honored  in  any 
county  in  the  state.  Individual  checks  must  be 
secured  by  individual  securities,  and  when  pre- 
sented by  the  proper  parties  as  designated  upon 
their  face,  they  shall  be  placed  against  the  maker 
and  in  favor  of  the  presenter.  In  case  the  pre- 
senter has  no  account  at  the  clearing  house  and 
does  not  wish  to  open  an  account,  then  the  clear- 
ing house  shall  pass  over  its  check  for  the  amount 
which  shall  represent  full  face  value  in  any  part 
of  the  state,  upon  proper  indorsement  of  the  per- 
son to  whom  it  was  made. 

USEC.  6.  The  checks  needed  to  transact  this 
system  of  exchange  shall  be  conveniently  arranged 
in  books  for  pocket  use,  containing  amounts  from 
$25  up  to  $1,000,  and  in  fractions  of  25  cents  up 
to  $25,  in  order  to  facilitate  the  making  of  change 
and  the  squaring  of  accounts  of  various  denomin- 
ations. These  checks  shall  be  registered,  num- 
bered uniformly,  and  issued  in  series,  under  the 
supervision  of  a  committee  of  twelve  competent 
persons,  consisting  of  the  state  governor,  attorney 
general,  state  treasurer,  an  expert,  and  eight  coun- 
ty treasurers,  selected  one  from  each  congress- 
ional district,  and  in  each  case  selecting  the 
treasurer  of  the  district  who  received  the  largest 
majority  at  the  last  previous  election.  Each 
check  shall  be  provided  with  a  place  for  a 
gem  photograph  of  the  maker,  which  can  be 
pasted  on  in  case  the  maker  thinks  necessary. 
The  seal  of  the  clearing  house  shall  be  placed  up- 
on all  checks,  and  when  gems  are  used  the  seal 
shall  partly  cover  the  gems. 


70.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

"SEC.  7.  These  checks  shall  have  two  printed 
sides  and  constructed  on  the  principle  of  the 
Labor  Exchange  checks,  so  that  when  they  are 
handed  out  from  the  clearing  house  to  a  depositor 
of  credit  the  checks  will  be  of  no  value  to  any 
one  else  until  properly  endorsed,  and  then  can  be 
ordered  payable  to  a  certain  person  only  if  the 
maker  so  desires. 

4;SEC.  8.  To  cover  the  expense  of  preparing 
'these  checks,  hiring  extra  help  at  the  clearing 
houses,  and  operating  this  system  in  a  proper 
manner,  it  shall  be  necessary  to  charge  the  parties 
making  use  of  these  checks  and  credits  the  sum 
of  one  per  cent  per  annum,  but  in  no  case  slTall 
the  amount  charged  be  less  than  25  cents  at  any 
one  transaction.  This  per  cent  charged  shall  be 
paid  in  lawful  money  and  shall  be  used  as  afore- 
said, and  to  aid  in  balancing  the  legitimate  ex- 
penses of  the  county  wherein  it  is  collected/' 

A  bill  based  upon  principles  outlined  in  the 
foregoing  sections  is  of  vital  importance  to  the 
great  common  people  of  any  state.  Intelligent 
bankers  can  at  once  see  the  force  of  this  propo- 
sition, and  will  use  every  available  means  to  pre- 
vent its  passage.  This  one  bill  alone,  if  properly 
framed  and  enacted,  will  bring  more  prosperity 
than  anything  a  legislature  can  do  at  present. 
The  business  of  the  country  is  principally  done  on 
checks,  to  the  advantage  of  gamblers  and  spec- 
ulators, and  why  should  not  the  honest  toilers 
and  wealth  producers  also  make  use  of  the  same 
methods  to  save  themselves  from  the  clutches  of 
the  gold-bugs  and  swindlers? 

Brother  laborers,  study  this  matter.  See 
your  representatives,  and  make  a  grand  effort  to 
save  yourselves  and  your  homes.  This  is  the 
shortest  way  to  relief  by  law.  The  complete  way 
out  is  the  Labor  Exchange.  Keep  up  your  or- 
ganizations and  discuss  the  true  co-operative 
features  which  must  ultimately  succeed. 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE,  77. 


ADVICE, 

Your  best  and  cheapest  plan  on  the  whole  is 
to  get  a  demonstrative  Labor  Exchange  lecturer 
and  organizer  to  stay  with  you  a  few  days  and 
fully  instruct  you  in  the  work  as  well  as  to  get  you 
properly  in  line  for  effective  exchange  business. 
The  expense  will  be  but  a  trifle  when  compared 
with  the  advantages  you  can  at  once  receive  by 
so  doing.  All  day  sessions  will  be  the  plan  for 
those  who  wish  to  learn  how  to  put  the  system 
into  operation  and  profit  soon. 


ONE  RIGHT  WAY. 

It  is  a  foolish  idea  some  people  get  into  their 
heads  that  they  can  study  up  some  plan  and  start 
a  co-operative  institution  to  be  a  success  without 
adopting  the  Labor  Exchange  system.  No  col- 
ony idea  can  fully  succeed.  This  is  the  verdict 
of  forty  years  study  and  the  world's  history  for 
centuries.  Why  oppose  the  inevitable  when  it  is 
light  and  truth  ye  seek.  Cast  aside  selfish  pro- 
jects and  plant  the  only  complete  and  effective 
method  man  can  devise  and  operate.  Give  equal 
justice  to  all  and  special  privileges  to  none.  Be 
careful  with  salaried  projectors,  stock  investments 
or  high-priced  memberships,  for  their  ring  is  not 
as  clear  and  certain  as  it  should  be.  There  can 
be  but  one  right  way. 


78.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

Don't  do  so  much  wrangling  about  method. 
Go  to  work  and  do  something  that  will  produce 
wealth.  Labor  is  the  only  real  capital  you  need 
in  connection  with  nature,  and  without  those  you 
cannot  live  in  a  civilized  country  even  if  you  had 
tons  of  gold.  Organize  an  Exchange  of  two  or 
more  members  and  do  something  and  when  you 
get  more  than  you  wa-it  for  your  own  use  we  will 
readily  show  you  how  and  where  to  make  easy 
and  profitable  exchanges.  We  know  these  things 
and  you  will  learn  them  as  you  proceed.  Don't 
wait  for  anything  or  anybody.  You  will  be  re- 
quired to  work  out  your  own  salvation  with  a  re- 
ward for  the  work  done.  Begin  right  where  you 
are  and  while  some  are  toiling  at  other  points  you 
will  shortly  be  surprised  at  the  result.  Make  the 
trial. 

We  advocate  no  special  party,  faction,  click 
or  denomination,  being  aware  they  have  short- 
comings, and  although  some  in  either  party  may 
be  honest  and  sincere,  yet  the  objects  they  pro- 
pose to  accomplish  are  far  from  being  the  most 
desirable  and  the  methods  incomplete.  In  reach- 
ing out  for  true,  just  and  grand  results  conten- 
tion and  strife  must  be  discarded,  while  harmo- 
nious operations  are  inaugurated  for  general  good 
of  the  entire  human  race  as  a  unity  believing  in 
the  brotherhood  of  man  and  the  fatherhood  of 
God. 

Our  check  system  is  so  complete  that  it  en- 
ables any  worthy  person  to  draw  on  any  accumu- 
lated wealth  they  possess  either  in  mind,  muscle 
or  material  property  of  any  kind.  As  you  push 
the  work  to  success  it  manifests  itself  to  be  an 
immediate  grand  remedy  for  all  evils  and  the  only- 
way  out.  The  sooner  the  work  is  begun  in  earn- 
est in  any  locality  so  much  the  earlier  they  will  be 
relieved,  and  by  no  other  plan  is  it  possible  to 
fully  succeed. 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  79. 


TRUE  CO-OPERATION  AT  WORK. 

BY  E.   Z.   ERNST. 

Many  readers  of  the  "Twentieth  Century" 
profess  to  believe  in  some  kind  of  co-operative 
work.  We  venture  to  pen  a  few  more  lines  which 
may  interest  at  least  some  of  the  sacrificing  co- 
workers.  It  seems  strange  how  many  different 
ideas  men  can  form  and  each  imagine  that  he  is( 
about  right.  One  recommends  a  certain  plan 
while  another  believes  in  the  opposite,  and  it  all 
goes  to  show  that  the  minds  of  most  projectors 
have  not  yet  arrived  at  the  proper  conclusion — 
that  the  true  plan  has  not  yet  entered  the  minds  of 
the  contentious — for  when  the  genuine  principle 
is  found  and  accepted,  harmony  will  at  once  pre 
vail. 

I  do  not  believe  in  calling  a  convention  at 
an  enormous  expense  when  better  effect  can  be 
produced  by  and  through  the  reform  journals.  I. 
think  the  realization  of  a  Co-operative  Common- 
wealth is  not  so  very  near  at  hand,  although  I.  do 
think  our  social  system  will  in  a  very  few  years 
make  a  complete  evolution  to  higher  social  at- 
tainment than  that  of  a  system  controlled  by  gov- 
ernment machinery,  I  can  sanction  only  a  com- 
plete individualism  in  social  reform,  and  that  is 
the  true  standing  of  every  sincere  co-operator 
when  proper  methods  are  fully  understood. 

In  several  of  the  western  and  southern  states 
the  Labor  Exchange  has  started  operations,  and 
although  it  is  yet  in  its  infancy,  it  clearly  demon- 
strates to  the  observer  that  it  is  based  upon  ra- 
tional principles.  It  is  organized  as  a  beneficiary 
association  to  employ  the  idle  and  relieve  the  suf- 
fering, by  providing  the  necessaries  of  life  to 
those  who  are  willing  to  aid  in  the  production  of 


80.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

wealth.  Its  distribution  is  aided  by  an  ingenious 
system  of  deposit  certificates,  somewhat  similiar 
to  those  by  Wm  M.  Wood  in  the  "Century"  of 
February  15,  only  more  complete  in  every  partic- 
ular. 

This  system  has  not  long  since  been  intro- 
duced to  the  public,  but  because  of  simplicity 
and  effective  work  it  is  making  very  rapid  growth, 
We  are  fully  convinced  it  is  the  only  feasible  and 
complete  plan  in  the  immediate  reach  of  the 
American  people  who  love  liberty  and  justice, 
and  should  advise  those  interested  to  send  to  the 
Labor  Exchange  at  Olathe,  Kansas,  for  printed 
matter  that  will  more  fully  explain,  and  may  aid 
in  formulating  the  grand  general  movement. 

This  plan  does  not  require  any  one  to  leave 
home  and  friends,  nor  to  raise  funds  for  coloniza- 
tion, nor  is  any  one  restricted,  by  laws  nor  cus- 
toms, to  forego  what  is  not  desired,  but  gives  all 
the  privileges  of  individualism  and  co-operative 
exchange.  It  abolishes  usury,  landlordism,  pov- 
erty, speculation,  taxation,  spurious  laws,  million- 
aires, useless  officials  and  anarchists. — ''Twentieth 
Century"  March  ist,  1894, 


WHAT  IS  A  SOCIALIST? 

In  answer  to  this  question  we  take  the  pains 
to  state  that  we  have  not  been  going  the  rounds 
and  laying  a  special  claim  to  being  a  socialist, 
yet,  it  is  hard  for  us  to  comprehend  why  any  sane 
person  would  try  to  be  any  thing  else.  There  can 
be  nothing  harmful  in  being  a  genuine  socialist. 
Webster  defines  it  as  follows:  "One  who  advocates 
socialism/'  and  socialism  is  a  "doctrine  or  theory 
of  a  better  arrangement  of  the  social  relations  of 
mankind  than  that  which  has  hitherto  prevailed." 
In  short  it  is  a  more  friendly  and  mutual  state  of 
things  for  the  human  family.  Then  we  may  say, 
who  is  so  hard  hearted  and  cold  natured  that 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  8l. 

they  would  not  desire  a  better  condition  than  is 
confronting  the  American  people  to-day?  There 
certainly  can  be  no  good  reason  for  desiring  a 
worse  condition,  nor,  can  we  see  a  cause  for 
standing  still,  but  it  seems  natural  for  us  to  have 
a  desire  for  an  onward  and  upward  movement  to 
a  better  social  condition  and  therefore  must  be  a 
natural  socialist  and  should  be  sorry  to  learn  that 
our  efforts  to  elevate  the  human  race  were  not  ap- 
preciated. 

The  terms  Socialist  and  Anarchist  are  often 
intentionally  confounded  by  unsocially  disposed 
or  ignorant  beings,  for  whom  we  feel  a  pang  of 
sorrow  to  learn  that  they  should  have  a  biased 
and  unnatural  feeling  against  their  best  friends. 
Anarchy  is  "being  without  government;  lawless; 
confused;"  and  an  anarchist  is  "one  who  pro- 
motes disorder."  We  hope  none  of  our  readers 
will  make  this  mistaken  application  henceforth. 


TALK  OF  WAR? 

It  is  a  lamentable  fact  that  we  occassionally 
hear  some  foolish  people  talk  about  war  as  though 
it  were  necessary  and  an  honor  to  stand  in  line 
to  be  shot  down  at  the  behest  of  men  who  do  not 
appear  in  battle  but  who  are  making  use  of  men 
as  machines  of  destruction  to  slay  each  other  in 
order  that  the  frauds  perpetrated  upon  the  wealth- 
producers  may  be  continued.  It  is  the  plan  of 
the  thieves  and  swindlers  to  divert  the  minds  of 
the  masses  from  the  true  cause  and  remedy  of  the 
present  hard  conditions  among  the  toiling  people 
and  turn  them  against  themselves  so  that  distress 
may  be  extended  until  it  has  virtually  destroyed 
individualism  and  made  a  few  selfish  bloodsuck- 
ers rulers  of  the  earth. 

The  soldiers,  in  an  ordinary  sense,  are  but 
the  subjected  tools  or  machines  of  despotic  rule, 


82.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

instituted  by  the  very  tyrants  who  seek  the  down- 
fall of  just  principles.  If  the  working  men  are 
oppressed  by  the  monopolies  how  can  they  be 
benefited  by  forming  into  armies  and  destroying 
themselves  by  shooting  each  other  down  and  al- 
lowing the  cause  unharmed  to  feed  and  prosper 
on  the  misfortunes  of  the  subjugated  dupes.  Is 
it  not  a  fact  that  the  cause  of  war  is  never  found 
in  battle  and  ever  keeps  at  a  safe  distance  while 
there  is  danger;  yet,  after  the  slaughter  has  been 
made  and  half  the  innocent  slain  and  injured,  the 
old  cause  still  remains  a  greater  evil  and  of  a 
more  poisonous  nature  than  ever  before. 

War  is  the  Devil's  factory  and  can  bring  no 
good  results.  We  must  look  the  field  over  with 
an  eye  to  making  some  beneficial  changes.  It 
'must  be  don.e  intelligently  and  soon.  It  is  an 
easier  and  a  more  agreeable  plan  than  war.  We 
must  remove  the  pest  and  plant  a  healthy  social 
system,  which  is  an  evolution  rather  than  a  revo- 
lution. Education  is  the  first  step,  organization 
and  action  will  follow,  while  war  and  blood-shed 
shall  be  known  no  more  forever. 


CONTRIBUTION. 

HUBBARD,  Minn. — By  the  kindness  of  a 
brother  your  bright  little  paper  fell  into  my  hands. 
I  am  in  hearty  sympathy  with  any  movement 
which  aims  to  ameliorate  the  condition  of  those 
who  toil.  The  folly  of  labor  on  its  knees  to  cap- 
ital, were  it  not  for  the  tragedy  of  their  ignorant 
servility  and  ghastly  want  which  follows,  is  one 
well  calculated  to  make  a  wooden  image  smile. 
The  worst  superstition  that  ever  found  lodgment 
in  human  brains  is  the  money  fetch,  knowing 
somewhat  of  what  I  speak,  having  spent  my  time 
and  my  last  dollar  on  the  greenback  propoganda 
before  I  got  the  wax  out  of  my  eyes.  I  turned 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  83. 

my  eyes  toward  a  co-operative  movement  which 
fell  through  almost  before  it  started,  on  account 
of  the  lack  of  sound  principles  in  its  make  up 
rather  than  lack  of  honesty.  Rents,  profits,  divi- 
dends arid  interest  must  be  utterly  abolished  in 
this  movement.  This  marks  the  distinction  be- 
tween competition  and  co-operation.  Interest  or 
usury,  is  the  curse  of  humanity  and  is  at  the  bot 
torn  of  the  woe,  want  and  misery,  that  stares  one 
in  the  face  on  every  hand.  Human  greed  and 
selfishness  have  barred  the  way  to  the  advance- 
ment of  the  human  race.  We  are  about  entering 
a  new  and  brighter  age  where  love  of  God,  in  the 
performance  of  use  to  the  neighbor,  must  and  will 
take  the  place  of  the  present  satanic  method  of 
every  one  for  himself  and  the  devil  take  the  hind- 
most. Too  many  men,  whether  comfortably  pro- 
vided for  or  wage-slaves,  are  embryo  monopolists. 
Talk  to  them  of  destroying  money,  usury  or 
profits,  and  they  are  ready  to  faint  away;  but  this 
must  be  accomplished.  Looking  at  the  enormous 
evidences  of  debts,  public  and  private,  and  re- 
flecting upon  the  millions  of  money  wrung  from 
the  toilers  yearly  to  pay  interests,  besides  the  un- 
reasonable salaries  of  parasites  and  nonproducers, 
it  seems  as  though  a  putty  Indian  could  see  that 
in  order  for  labor  to  gej  what  it  earns,  it  is  one 
of  the  essentials  that  the  laborers  combine  in  the 
interchange  of  products  upon  a  basis  of  value  for 
value,  and  give  the  golden  calf  rope  enough  to 
hang  itself.  Millions  of  men  and  women  are  idle 
and  on  the  brink  of  starvation  and  other  millions 
are  on  the  ragged  edge  of  bankruptcy,  yet  the  burden 
of  paying  the  millions  of  dollars  of  usury  and  taxes 
must  fall  on  them  until  pauperization  follows.  In 
the  face  of  these  facts  how  puerile  is  the  cry  of 
single  tax  (or  double  tax),  income  tax  or  tariff 
tax.  Unite,  produce,  consume  and  enjoy  life  un- 
der a  system  which  will  insure  your  welfare  and 
happiness  and  provide  immunity  from  the  poor- 


04-  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

house  for  posterity.  "Gold  and  silver  have  I 
none"  but  what  I  have  I  freely  lay  upon  the  altar 
for  the  good  of  my  fellowmen. 

Yours  for  the  cause  of  God  and  humanity. 

W.  H.  PAVITT. 

[You  have  the  right  ring.  Truth  is  mighty 
and  must  prevail.  The  New  erea  is  rapidly  clos- 
ing in  upon  us,  and  the  devil's  reign  is  doomed 
and  of  short  duration.  We  are  swiftly  forming 
links  and  joining  fellowship  on  these  lines  from 
sea  to  sea. --AUTHOR  } 


A  TRANSACTION. 

Suppose  A  is  a  blacksmith  who  is  idle  part 
of  the  time  for  lack  of  customers  and  therefore 
employs  himself  at  making  a  pair  of  good  steel 
skates,  which  when  completed  are  worth  fully 
$1.25.  It  being  summer  and  no  sale  for  them  he 
steps  round  to  the  Exchange  and  deposits  them 
for  safe  keeping  on  credit.  (Now  watch  the  law 
while  we  make  this  transaction).  B  is  manager 
of  the  Exchange  and  agrees  to  take  in  the  skates 
at  a  wholesale  price  of  $i  and  lays  them  on  the 
shelf.  Now  A  and  B  agree  that  if  B  can  sell  or 
exchange  them  for  something  else,  on  feir  basis, 
that  it  will  be  all  right. 

But  A  wants  some  proof  that  he  has  left  a  de- 
posit of  goods  to  be  drawn  upon,  therefore,  B  fills 
out  a  deposit  certificate  in  A's  favor  for  a  dollar's 
worth  in  goods  or  labor,  showing  that  A  has  de- 
posited skates  on  exchange.  Now  A  returns  to 
his  work  and  soon  C  drops  in  and  demands  a  dol- 
lar that  A  is  owing  him.  A  explains  the  situation 
and  hands  C  the  check,  properly  endorsed,  re- 
marking that  he  could  take  it  if  he  choosed.  C 
takes  it  stating  that  he  had  no  use  for  skates  nor 
anything  else  he  could  think  of  on  the  Exchange 
just  now  but  that  he  wished  to  square  accounts 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  85. 

and  will  hand  it  to  D  who  is  owing  for  some  time 
and  may  be  D  will  want  something  at  the  deposi- 
tory. So  it  can  be  handed  round  all  summer  at 
free-will,  and  in  the  winter,  when  skates  are  in  de- 
mand, that  check  is  good  for  a  dollar  towards 
paying  the  skates  or  anything  else  for  sale  or  ex- 
change. When  B  receives  it  in  exchange  it  is 
cancelled  and  goes  out  of  use. 

We  guarantee  any  man  big  pay  to  show  ille- 
gal transaction  in  that.  Besides,  the  same  thing  is 
being  practiced  daily  all  over  the  civilized  world. 

Something  similar  to  this  has  been  made  use 
of  for  ages,  upon  false  bases,  to  swindle  the  toil- 
ers and  enrich  the  idle  schemers.  Why  should 
not  labor  attend  to  its  own  fair  and  honest  ex- 
changing. No  state,  national  nor  corporation  laws 
have  anything  to  do  with  this  matter. 


BRANCH  REPORTS. 

FROM  NUMBER   l8. 

A  few  lines  from  us  may  be  of  some  assist- 
ance to  others.  We  embraced  the  opportunity  as 
it  presented  itself  a  few  weeks  ago,  and  as  bids 
were  advertised  in  our  little  town  for  the  building 
of  three  school-houses,  we  appointed  a  committee 
of  members  to  put  in  bids  and  succeeded  in  secur- 
ing one  to  cost  about  $1,950.00.  We  immed- 
iately began  the  work  of  excavation,  put  a  crew 
of  men  to  cutting  timber  and  getting  logs  to  the 
mill  to  make  lumber.  Our  own  teams  are  haul- 
ing them  and  some  of  our  members  are  working 
in  the  mill.  When  Saturday  evening  came  we  is- 
sued Labor  Checks,  based  upon  the  building,  at 
the  rate  of  $1.00  per  day  for  each  working  man 
and  $2.00  per  day  for  teams.  Our  labor  by  cal- 
culation came  to  $1.50  per  day.  The  boys  took 
their  checks  to  the  stores,  which  took  them  at  par, 
and  were  soon  plying  home,  with  some  of  the 
fruits  of  their  toil,  smiling  and  happy. 


86.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

Next  week  our  crop  of  seven  acres  of  pota- 
toes will  be  attended  as  well  as  the  building,  and 
we  will  put  a  crew  to  work  getting  out  material  to 
make  shingles.  We  can  furnish  other  Exchanges 
with  all  the  shingles  and  lumber  they  want  by  the 
car  lots,  or  we  could  ship  several  barrels  of  salt 
salmond  fish. 

We  would  like  very  much  to  exchange  our 
surplus  products  for  such  as  flour,  chopped  feed 
or  any  material  that  can  be  consumed  by  man  or 
beast.  The  ladies  of  the  Exchange  are  busy  mak- 
ing clothing.  As  we  develop  and  advance  we 
will  need  a  store  or  commissary  of  our  own.  We 
should  be  pleased  to  hear  from  other  Exchanges, 
as  we  feel  assured  that  the  Labor  Exchange,  care- 
fully and  properly  managed,  is  the  solution  of  the 
labor  question.  There  is  no  other. 
Fraternally  yours, 

D.  O'BRIEN,  Sec'y. 
PORT  ANGELES,  Wash.,  June  10th,  1894. 

FROM   CINCINNATI,  OHIO. 

EDITOR  "PROGRESSIVE  THOUGHT:" — It  must 
be  a  source  of  great  mental  pleasure  to  Bro.  De 
Bernardi  and  yourself  to  contemplate  the  good 
being  done  by  the  young  benevolent  organization 
of  the  Labor  Exchange,  through  your  joint  labors 
and  that  of  your  colleagues.  While  it  is  yet  in  its 
infancy,  I  have  personal  knowledge  of  much  good 
it  has  been  instrumental  in  starting  on  the  way 
while  gathering  strength  as  its  aims  and  objects 
became  known. 

While  attached  to  No.  10,  of  Tennessee, 
many  hopeless  men  were  encouraged  on  their 
journey  through  life  by  being  helped  to  help 
themselves  in  becoming  members  of  the  Exchange. 
Many  widows,  in  very  poor  circumstances,  were 
given  work  at  fair  rates.  There  are  buggies  and 
wagons  now  on  the  streets  of  Cincinnati  which 
were  made  bv  idle  men  who  were  assisted  bv  the 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  87. 

Exchange  to  turn  out  work  and  receive  much 
more  compensation  than  they  would  at  regular 
wages,  as  no  interest  was  charged  for  the  use  of 
funds  advanced  on  stock. 

Several  -broom-makers  and  idle  men  of  Cin- 
cinnati's unemployed  have  been  helped  to  obtain 
work  during  the  past  winter.  At  present  we  have 
a  tent  on  one  of  the  member's  ground,  in  the 
East  End,  where  worthy  idle  men  are  aided  to 
grub  steaks  during  their  enforced  idleness.  The 
cost  averages  $1.25  for  each  man  per  week.  We 
have  another  on  the  bank  of  the  Ohio  River 
where. six  men,  in  two  squads,  earn  their  living  by 
fishing  night  and  day. 

Clothing  and  provisions  were  gathered  for 
Fry's  Industrial  Army  by  members  of  our  Labor 
Exchange.  Our  certificates  of  deposit  on  labor 
are  received  by  a  newspaper  and  many  merchants 
in  this  city  as  well  as  in  Chattanooga  and  other 
places.  Yes,  we  know  the  world  has  been  made 
better  by  the  presence  of  the  founder  and  organ- 
izer of  the  Labor  Exchange  on  our  planet. 

The  Labor  Exchange  has  many  would-be, 
imitators,  and  one  of  the  latest  is  being  formed 
in  our  city.  We  earnestly  wish  them  all  the  suc- 
cess their  plans  merit,  but  would  like  to  see  them 
attach  themselves  to  one  already  chartered  under 
the  laws  of  Missouri,  by  De  Bernardi,  as  that  can 
not  be  beat  as  outlined  in  * 'Trials  and  Triumph 
of  Labor."  Trusting  that  the  time  is  not  far  off 
when  we  shall  all  unite  and  occupy  our  own  Tem- 
ple of  Labor  in  Kansas  City,  I  am 
Fraternally  yours, 

R.  H.  THORNBURV. 
SIXTH  &  LOCK  STS.,  June  15th,  1894. 

FROM   PFAFFTOWN,   N.    C. 

BRO.  ERNST: — Yours  of  the  yth  inst.  came  to 
hand  yesterday.  I  have  been  away  from  home 
during  the  last  month.  I  went  to  Lenoir  county 


X8.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

by  far  the  finest  agricultural  region  of  our  state, 
but  the  weather  was  so  exceedingly  warm  that  I 
made  but  three  speeches  on  Labor  Exchange,  and 
organized  one  of  over  forty  members  at  Kings- 
ton— a  town  of  3,000  inhabitants.  I  doubt  not 
this  will  be  a  strong  prosperous  Exchange  and  a 
fine  object  lesson  for  Eastern  North  Carolina. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  success  of  the 
Labor  Exchange  in  any  community  where  its 
principles  are  understood,  if  there  is  any  disposi- 
tion to  co-operate  and  the  advantages  have  been 
considered  or  exemplified  (even  o*n  a  small  scale). 
The  people  can  not  help  seeing  that  the  Labor 
Exchange  surpasses  all  other  methods.  Its  gen- 
eral adoption  is  only  a  question  of  time  and  the 
number  of  unselfish  workers  who  will  "go  into  all 
the  world"  and  preach  it. 

The  Labor  Exchange  idea  will  be  brought 
before  the  next  convention  of  our  State  Farmers 
Alliance  and  thoroughly  discussed.  The  presi- 
dent of  the  S.  F.  A.  is  now  an  enthusiastic  mem- 
ber of  the  Labor  Exchange,  and  is  one  of  the  best 
men  in  the  state.  He  will  do  the  Exchange  a  ser- 
vice of  incalculable  importance  this  coming  fall. 

Branch  No.  n,  at  this  place,  is  still  living. 
It  is  "one  of  the  immortal,  not  born  to  die."  Or- 
ganized August  4th,  1893,  virtually  without  money, 
it  "went  into  business"  early  on  the  following 
Monday  morning  and  has  been  in  operation  ever 
since.  This  branch  will  never  go  4-out  of  busi- 
ness" while  the  world  stands.  Our  certificates  of 
deposit  were  ready  when  our  work  began,  and, 
notwithstanding  the  most  unfavorable  weather, 
the  Exchange  manufactured  more  than  forty 
thousand  bricks  (instead  of  being  idle).  "Checks" 
were  issued  for  every  day's  labor  deposited,  and 
the  next  step  was  to  secure  a  lot,  of  7-8  of  an 
acre,  for  which  certificates  were  issued  and  in  con- 
sideration therefor  a  title  in  fee  simple  to  the  lot 
was  made  The  third  step  was  to  improve  the 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  89. 

real  estate  by  excavating  for  a  basement,  24x28 
feet,  and  building  into  its  walls  about  seventeen 
thousand  of  the  bricks  on  hand.  Our  next  move 
was  to  build  over  the  basement  a  depot,  the  lum- 
ber being  deposited  against  checks  issued  there- 
for and  the  building  is  now  nearly  completed. 
This  is  an  excellent  piece  of  work.  The  third 
story  will  be  used  for  educational  purposes,  etc. 
Our  fifth  step  taken  was  the  building  of  a  Tan- 
nery, which  is  now  ready  for  work,  and  in  a  few 
months  the  Exchange  expects  to  go  forward  unin- 
terruptedly in  the  production  of  wealth  and  sav- 
ing that  wealth  to  the  workers. 

This  has  been  done  by  the  Labor  Exchange 
and  its  doing  has  strengthened  it  for  future  deeds. 
Without  the  Labor  Exchange  system  of  co-opera- 
tion such  a  creation  of  wealth  would  have  been 
as  impossible  as  the  creation  of  a  world.  The 
entire  practicability  of  the  Labor  Exchange  princi- 
ples has  been  demonstrated  and  placed  forever 
beyond  question.  No  community  needing  relief 
(and  where  is  one  that  does  not?)  should  hesitate 
a  moment. 

You  can  produce  wealth  and  then  exchange 
it.  You  can  enrich  yourselves  without  seeking 
help  from  the  government  or  capitalists,  nor  leav- 
ing home  to  join  a  colony.  Colonize  your  neigh- 
bors at  home  and  capitalize  your  own  products. 
That  is  the  way  to  whip  Shylock,  and  there  is  no 
other.  Yours  Fraternally, 

V.  A.  WILSON. 
June  15th,  1894. 


DON'T  FORGET. 

If  you  want  special  information  from  any 
working  branches  they  will  be  glad  to  give  it,  but 
if  the  knowledge  is  not  worth  a  dime  don't  trouble 
them,  and  if  it  is,  enclose  an  equivalent.  Let  us 
practice  fair  exchange. 


90.  THE    PROGRESSIVE     HAND    HOOK 


THE  PROGRESSIVE  THOUGHT 

is  a  radical  unbiased  Reform  Journal  which  should* 
be  read  in  every  family  and  it  will  endeavor  to 
keep  in  advance  of  its  readers.  The  editor  would 
be  pleased  to  expose  many  of  the  fallacies  of  the 
present  age  but  as  it  would  cross  grain  about  nine 
tenth  of  the  adult  people  of  America,  coupled 
with  the  fact  that  our  subscription  list  is  not  yet 
sufficiently  strong  to  uphold  the  effort,  it  is  pru- 
dent to  make  haste  slowly  upon  a  safe  basis. 
Help  us  get  sufficient  permanent  readers  to  sus- 
tain the  effort  and  you  shall,  as  soon  as  exped- 
ient, hear  the  full  and  unvarnished  truth  on  correct 
lines  of  justice  irrespective  of  creed,  faction  or 
antediluvian  heterodoxy.  We  have  millions  of 
friends  in  America  alone  if  we  could  but  attract 
their  attention  sufficiently  to  learn  what  we  are  at. 
Can't  you  do  something  for  the  good  of  mankind, 
by  introducing  us  to  your  friends  and  neighbors? 
Try  it. 


CONDENSED  VIEW. 

BY    MRS.    M.    J.    ARCHER. 

This  is  an  organization  to  convert  the  world 
from  a  semi-barbarous  state  to  civilization  and  an 
ultimate  paradise  It  is  the  greatest  movement 
and  grandest  beneficiary  association  that  man 
ever  thought  or  dreamed  of;  then  why  not  push 
the  work  and  teach  the  ignorant  at  so  small  an 
outlay  as  $1.00  for  a  life  membership.  If  they 
closely  follow  the  teachings  any  locality  can,  in 
ten  days,  show  signs  of  prosperity,  and  all  Amer- 
ica be  flourishing  and  happy  in  less  than  six 
months.  The  practical  operations  will  settle  the 
money,  tariff,  land  and  transportation  questions. 
Then  why  wait  for  Congress  to  settle  them? 


i)F    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  91. 

Unite,  produce,  consume  and  enjoy  life,  under  a 
system  which  will  insure  your  welfare  and  happi- 
ness, and  provide  immunity  from  the  poor-house 
for  posterity. 

Truth  is  mighty  and  must  prevail.  We  are 
swiftly  forming  links  and  joining  fellowship  on 
correct  lines  from  sea  to  sea,  and  if  the  working 
people  will  take  the  advice  of  the  Labor  Exchange 
and  carry  it  out,  they  need  not  toil  over  four  hours 
a  day  of  five  days  per  week,  and  have  plenty  of 
the  necessities  with  lots  of  the  luxuries  of  life 
This  prosperity  can  dawn  upon  them  in  less  than 
thirty  days  if  they  so  desire.  Plans  will  be  given 
from  time  to  time  for  immediate  operation  and 
relief  to  those  who  are  sufficiently  tired  of  hard 
times  and  unjust  conditions  to  help  make  an  ef- 
fort in  fact  and  not  in  theory  alone.  If  you  de- 
posit $i  or  more  in  the  General  management  you 
will  receive  therefor  a  Certificate  of  Deposit 
which  will  circulate  at  face  value  from  member  to 
member  and  from  branch  to  branch  and  will 
finally  be  redeemed  in  the  produce  and  incoming 
revenues  of  the  Central  office.  You  are  not  out 
anything,  for  the  day  the  deposit  is  received  you 
are  issued  an  equivalent  in  "checks"  of  the  value 
you  deposit,  let  it  be  one  or  more  dollars. 

Millions  will  starve  or  suffer  other  similarly 
sad  consequences  before  the  government  will  act 
upon  anything  that  will  relieve  the  distressed  in 
the  land,  while  the  Exchange  can  be  introduced 
in  any  locality  at  once,  because  a  few  can  ope- 
rate it  effectively.  Why  should  not  labor  attend 
to  its  own  fair  and  honest  exchanging?  No  state, 
national  nor  corporation  laws  have  anything  to  do 
with  this  matter?  We  assume  that  this  is  a  free 
country  and  that  we  will  not  be  molested  as  long 
as  we  quietly  and  industriously  attend  to  our  own 
business  without  interfering  with  others  nor  trans- 
gressing the  laws  and  customs  of  the  country. 
There  is  no  need  for  the  idle  to  join  the  Coxey  or 


92.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

Kelly  army  and  suffer  the  inconveniences  and 
hardships  that  they  have  endured.  The  beauty 
of  this  association  is  that  they  can  stay  right  at 
home  and  commence  work  right  away.  All  that 
is  necessary  is  muscle,  mind  and  ambition 

This  is  complete  individualism  in  a  social 
reform,  when  proper  methods  are  understood  and 
carried  out.  This  system  has  not  long  since  been 
introduced  to  the  public,  but  because  of  its  sim- 
plicity and  effective  work,  it  is  making  very  rapid 
growth.  We  are  fully  convinced  that  it  is  the 
only  feasible  and  complete  plan  in  the  immediate 
reach  of  the  American  people  who  love  Liberty 
and  Justice. 

We  do  not  ask  any  one  to  join  us  if  they  do 
not  want  to,  we  only  point  out  the  best  way.  One 
dollar  is  within  the  reach  of  almost  any  one  and 
that  amount  for  a  life  membership,  without  dues, 
is  the  cheapest  expense  money  ever  heard  of  for 
starting  a  successful  Beneficiary  Association.  It 
is  organized  to  employ  the  idle  and  relieve  the 
suffering  by  providing  the  necessaries  of  life  to 
those  who  are  willing  to  aid  in  the  production  of 
wealth.  Its  distribution  is  effected  on  a  correct 
basis  by  an  ingenious  system  of  deposits  and  cer- 
tificates. You  can  make  anything  needed  for  the 
necessities  and  comforts  of  life  and  leave  it  with 
the  Exchange,  as  well  as  all  manufactured  or 
raised  products  which  some  one  at  some  time 
may  want,  and  in  return  receive  certificates  for 
the  value  of  the  deposits.  These  "checks"  are 
good  at  face  for  anything  for  sale  on  exchange 
and  will  soon  circulate  freely  among  all  business 
men  of  the  vicinity,  who  will  be  glad  to  trade 
with  the  laborers. 

Health  and  labor  is  the  only  real  capital  you 
need  in  connection  with  nature,  and  without  these 
you  cannot  live  in  any  civilized  country,  even 
with  tons  of  gold.  The  people  will  be  required 
to  work  out  their  own  salvation  regardless  of  the 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  93. 

men  they  have  voted  for,  to  better  their  condi- 
tions, and  so  you  might  as  well  start  in  right  now 
and  fall  in  line  regardless  of  political  creeds  or  be- 
liefs, for  all  must  live  while  waiting. 

This  is  no  selfish  motive,  yet  it  is  strange 
that  people  should  desire  a  higher  state  of  civili- 
zation and  not  help  to  bring  it  about.  When  a 
good  principle  is  discovered,  why  not  proceed 
without  delay  to  put  it  into  effect? 
SAN  DTEGO,  California. 


RISE  AND  FALL  OF  PRICES  AND  WAGES- 

DEAR  BRO.  ERNST: — Your  letter  requesting 
me  to  contribute  to  your  Progressive  Hand  Book 
of  the  Labor  Exchange  an  article  on  the  effect  of 
a  rise  or  fall  of  prices  and  wages,  has  been  re- 
ceived. In  answer  will  say  that  it  would  require 
a  volume  of  many  hundred  pages  to  unfold  the 
philosophy  of  such  vibrations  and  depict  the  evils 
resulting  therefrom.  The  phenomenon  has  two 
prominent  aspects;  one  vain  and  ridiculous;  the 
other  the  very  essence  of  iniquity  and  robbery. 
Allow  me  to  give  your  readers  the  ridiculous  as- 
pect by  means  of  an  illustration. 

Not  far  from  a  small  town  lived  a  Dutchman 
and  his  wife  both  so  industrious  that  they  could 
not  be  induced  to  lose  an  hour  in  summer  or  win- 
ter, in  fair  or  foul  weather.  They  were  always 
busy.  The  evening  of  a  rainy  day  a  neighbor 
happening  to  visit  the  pair  found  them  unusually 
overjoiced.  "I  made  twenty  dollars  to-day," 
said  the  husband,  "and  I  cleared  twenty-two  dol- 
lars," said  the  wife.  The  astonished  neighbor 
desired  to  know  how  they  could  have  realized  so 
much  on  such  a  day.  "Trading,"  the  couple  re- 
plied, and  explained  that  soon  after  breakfast,  see- 
ing they  could  not  work  out  door,  the  Dutchman 
sold  to  his  wife  a  pocket-knife  for  half  a  dollar 
cash,  when  she  sold  it  right  back  to  him  for  sixty 


94-  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

cents,  and  he  to  her  for  seventy-five  cents,  and 
she  to  him  for  one  dollar.  After  a  short  rest  he 
again  sold  it  to  her  for  one  dollar  and  twenty-five 
cents,  and  she  to  him  for  one  dollar  and  fifty 
cents,  and  he  to  her  for  two  dollars,  and,  as  the 
market  continued  to  rise,  commerce  became  brisk 
and  brisker  until  in  the  afternoon  the  price  of  the 
knife  was  a  perfect  boom,  and  the  exchange  a  de- 
lirium of  excitement.  The  result  was  that  the  en- 
terprise of  the  conjugal  pair  was  rewarded  with 
the  joint  profit  of  forty-two  dollars.  (?)  The 
truth  being  that  they  had  wasted  the  day  in  vain 
exertions  of  both  mind  and  body,  and,  had  they 
been  strangers  to  one  another,  one  would  have 
lost  what  the  other  gained,  and  the  world  would 
not  have  been  one  whit  better  for  their  foolish 
operations. 

A  little  consideration  will  reveal  that  the  rise 
and  fall  of  prices  does  not  increase  or  diminish 
the  quantity  nor  quality  of  commodities  to  be  in- 
terchanged, and  that  the  rise  and  fall  of  wages 
cannot  affect  the  quantity  nor  quality  of  the  pro- 
ducts or  services.  Prices  and  wages  have  truly 
no  relation  to  the  production  and  interchange  of 
wealth  nor  to  the  well  being  of  the  people  in  gen- 
eral. Hence  those  who  look  to  high  prices  and 
wages  for  the  amelioration  of  labor,  will  find 
themselves  sadly  disappointed.  Labor  and  hu- 
manity at  large  can  be  ameliorated,  in  so  far  as 
material  comforts  are  concerned,  only  by  increased 
production  and  equitable  distribution;  never  by 
sham  battles  about  high  prices  and  high  wages. 
The  sooner  labor  leaders  come  to  comprehend 
this  truth  the  better  for  them  and  their  followers. 

The  perverse  and  iniquitous  part  of  a  rise  and 
fall  of  prices  and  wages  is  the  obstructions  it 
places  in  the  flow  of  commerce,  baffling  all  calcu- 
lations, transforming  it  into  gambling  or  lottery 
operations  and  ending  with  incalculable  rob- 
beries. 


OF    THE    LABOR    EXCHANGE.  95. 

Prices  and  wages  have  reference  to  money 
alone  and  not  to  the  necessaries,  comforts  and 
luxuries  of  life.  Both  are  an  attempt  to  sell  pro- 
ducts and  labor  for  one  single  article  (money) 
which  is  not  in  volume  two  per  cent  of  the  wealth 
actually  in  existence,  leaving  out  the  amount  due 
annually  in  interest,  the  amount  necessary  to  em- 
ploy labor,  and  the  amount  hoarded  in  vaults. 
Our  wealth  is  considered  seventy  billions,  our 
money  not  one  billion,  our  labor  to  be  employed 
about  thirty  millions;  how  will  it  ever  be  possible 
to  squeeze  the  wealth  to  be  exchanged  and  the 
labor  to  be  employed  through  that  narrow  gate  of 
legal  tender  money.  All  attempts  in  all  ages  and 
in  all  countries  have  failed  and  will  ever  fail.  It 
is  an  absolute  impossibility.  Hence  the  markets 
are  overstocked,  industry  is  cramped,  progress  is 
retarded  and  suffering  is  wide-spread  and  apal- 
ling.  So  it  will  be  seen  that  if  prices  and  wages 
are  raised  in  one  department  of  industry  without 
an  equal  rise  in  others,  such  rise,  so  for  as  so 
ciety  at  large  is  concerned,  is  but  a  robbery  and 
nothing  else.  If,  on  the  contrary,  the  rise  is 
general,  then  it  spends  its  force  in  the  vain  and 
the  ridiculous,  as  the  boom  in  the  Dutchman's 
pocket-knife. 

Whence  then  comes  the  universal  desire  for 
a  rise  of  prices  and  wages?  Why  should  people 
be  so  anxious  for  an  event  that  when  it  comes 
would  be  productive  of  no  good?  We  will  en- 
deavor to  explain  this  apparently  unnatural  phe- 
nomenon. 

ist.  Each  individual  person,  and  class  of 
persons  engaged  in  the  production  of  the  same 
articles  or  the  same  services,  looks  at  things  from 
his  own  point  of  view,  and  has  not  even  a  con- 
ception of  the  view  and  interests  of  others  in 
other  occupations.  Each  considers  that  if  the 
price  of  his  productions  or  his  wages  were  raised, 
he  could  then  reach  deeper  into  the  productions 


96.  THE    PROGRESSIVE    HAND    BOOK 

and  services  of  others,  which  would  virtually  be 
equal  to  lowering  the  wages  of  these  others. 
They  reason  the  same  in  regard  to  him..  Thus 
deluded,  they  all  think  and  move  in  the  same 
vicious  circle. 

2d.  A  vast  multitude  of  the  people,  sever- 
ally and  collectively,  are  deeply  in  debt,  and  this 
debt,  private  and  public,  is  payable  in  money. 
A  rise  in  prices  and  wages,  even  if  it  should  not 
bring  home  more  comforts,  it  would  afford  more 
means  to  pay  debts,  while  a  fall  in  prices  and 
wages,  makes  it  harder  to  come  out  of  debts  and 
often  sweeps  the  accumulations  of  a  life  time. 

To  prevent  the  ravages  of  debts  consequent 
upon  a  fall  of  prices  and  wages,  the  value  of  these 
debts  should  be  rated  at  the  value  of  leading  pro- 
ducts at  the  time  the  debts  were  contracted. 

G.  B.  DE  BERNARDI. 
INDEPENDENCE,  Mo.,  August  10,  1894. 

[THE  END.] 


0 

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The  Text  Book  of  the  Labor   Exchange. 

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